View source for History of the United States

{{Short description|Aspect of History}}

{{Redirect|American history|the history of the continents|History of the Americas}}
{{Further|Economic history of the United States}}
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{{Very long|date=April 2023}}
{{Use American English|date=May 2019}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=September 2022}}
{{History of the United States |expanded =all}}
{{Culture of the United States}}
[[File:United States (+overseas), administrative divisions - en - colored (zoom).svg|thumb|Current territories of the United States after the [[Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands]] was given independence in 1994]]
The history of the lands that became the [[United States]] began with the arrival of [[Settlement of the Americas|the first people in the Americas]] around 15,000 BC. [[Native American cultures in the United States|Numerous indigenous cultures]] formed, and many saw transformations in the 16th century away from more densely populated lifestyles and towards reorganized polities elsewhere. The [[European colonization of the Americas]] began in the late 15th century, however most colonies in what would later become the United States were settled after 1600. By the 1760s, the [[Thirteen Colonies|thirteen British colonies]] contained 2.5&nbsp;million people and were established along the [[East Coast of the United States|Atlantic Coast]] east of the [[Appalachian Mountains]]. The [[Southern Colonies]] built an agricultural system on slave labor, [[Atlantic slave trade|importing slaves from Africa]] for this purpose. After [[French and Indian Wars|defeating France]], the British government imposed a series of taxes, including the [[Stamp Act 1765|Stamp Act of 1765]], rejecting the colonists' constitutional argument that new taxes needed their approval. Resistance to these taxes, especially the [[Boston Tea Party]] in 1773, led to [[Parliament of Great Britain|Parliament]] issuing [[Intolerable Acts|punitive laws]] designed to end self-government. Armed conflict began in Massachusetts in 1775.

In 1776, in Philadelphia, the [[Second Continental Congress]] [[United States Declaration of Independence|declared the independence]] of the colonies as the "United States". Led by General [[George Washington]], it won the [[American Revolutionary War|Revolutionary War]]. The [[Treaty of Paris (1783)|peace treaty of 1783]] established the borders of the new sovereign state. The [[Articles of Confederation]] established a central government, but it was ineffectual at providing stability as it could not collect taxes and had no executive officer. A [[Constitutional Convention (United States)|convention]] wrote [[Constitution of the United States|a new Constitution]] that was adopted in 1789 and a [[United States Bill of Rights|Bill of Rights]] was added in 1791 to guarantee [[Natural rights and legal rights|inalienable rights]]. With Washington as the first president and [[Alexander Hamilton]] his chief adviser, a strong central government was created. [[Louisiana Purchase|Purchase of the Louisiana Territory]] from France in 1803 doubled the size of the United States.

Encouraged by the notion of [[manifest destiny]], the United States [[American frontier|expanded]] to the [[West Coast of the United States|Pacific Coast]]. While the nation was large in terms of area, [[Demographics of the United States|its population]] in 1790 was only four million. Westward expansion was driven by a quest for inexpensive land for [[yeoman]] farmers and slave owners. The expansion of [[Slavery in the United States|slavery]] was increasingly controversial and fueled political and constitutional battles, which were resolved by compromises. Slavery was abolished in all states [[Northern United States|north]] of the [[Mason–Dixon line]] by 1804, but states in the [[Southern United States|south]] continued the institution, to support the kinds of large scale agriculture that dominated the southern economy. Precipitated by the election of [[Abraham Lincoln]] [[1860 United States presidential election|as president in 1860]], the [[American Civil War|Civil War]] began as the southern states seceded from the Union to form their own pro-slavery country, the [[Confederate States of America]]. The defeat of the Confederates in 1865 led to the [[Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|abolition of slavery]]. In the [[Reconstruction era]] following the war, [[Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|legal and voting rights were extended]] to [[Freedman|freed male slaves]]. The national government emerged much stronger, and [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|gained explicit duty to protect individual rights]]. However, when white southern Democrats regained their political power in the South in 1877, often by paramilitary [[Voter suppression in the United States|suppression of voting]], they passed [[Jim Crow laws]] to maintain [[white supremacy]], as well as new [[State constitution (United States)|state constitutions]] that legalized discrimination based on race and prevented most [[African Americans]] from participating in public life.

The United States became the world's leading industrial power at the turn of the 20th century, due to an outburst of entrepreneurship and industrialization and the [[European emigration|arrival of millions of immigrant workers and farmers]]. A national railroad network was completed and large-scale mines and factories were established. Mass dissatisfaction with corruption, inefficiency, and traditional politics stimulated the [[Progressive Era|Progressive movement]], from the 1890s to the 1920s, leading to reforms, including the federal income tax, direct election of Senators, granting of citizenship to many indigenous people, [[Prohibition in the United States|alcohol prohibition]], and [[Women's suffrage in the United States|women's suffrage]]. Initially neutral during [[World War I]], the United States [[American entry into World War I|declared war on Germany]] in 1917 and funded the [[Allies of World War I|Allied]] victory the following year. After the prosperous [[Roaring Twenties]], the [[Wall Street Crash of 1929]] marked the onset of the decade-long worldwide [[Great Depression in the United States|Great Depression]]. President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] implemented his [[New Deal]] programs, including relief for the unemployed, support for farmers, [[Social Security (United States)|social security]], and a [[Minimum wage in the United States|minimum wage]]. The New Deal defined [[Modern liberalism in the United States|modern American liberalism]].{{Sfn|Milkis}} Following the [[Attack on Pearl Harbor|Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor]], the United States entered [[World War II]] and financed the [[Allies of World War II|Allied]] war effort, and helped defeat [[Nazi Germany]] and [[Fascist Italy (1922–1943)|Fascist Italy]] in the [[European theatre of World War II|European theater]]. Its involvement culminated in using newly American invented [[Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki|nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki]] to defeat [[Empire of Japan|Imperial Japan]] in the [[Pacific War]].
[[File:USA (lower 48) pictorial.jpg|thumb|Pictorial map of the United States in 1992, after the end of the Cold War]]

The United States and the [[Soviet Union]] emerged as rival superpowers in the [[aftermath of World War II]]. During the [[Cold War]], the two countries confronted each other indirectly in the [[arms race]], the [[Space Race]], propaganda campaigns, and proxy wars. In the 1960s, in large part due to the strength of the [[civil rights movement]], another wave of social reforms was enacted which enforced the constitutional rights of voting and freedom of movement to African Americans. The Cold War ended when the [[dissolution of the Soviet Union|Soviet Union was officially dissolved]], leaving the United States as the world's sole superpower. Foreign policy [[Post–Cold War era|after the Cold War]] has often focused on [[List of modern conflicts in the Middle East|many conflicts in the Middle East]], especially after the [[September 11 attacks]]. Early in the 21st century, the United States experienced the [[Great Recession in the United States|Great Recession]] and the [[COVID-19 pandemic in the United States|COVID-19 pandemic]], which had [[Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States|a negative effect on the local economy]].

==Beginnings (before 1630)==
{{Main|Prehistory of the United States|History of Native Americans in the United States|Pre-Columbian era}}
{{See also|Native Americans in the United States}}
[[File:Peopling of America through Beringia.png|thumb|Approximate location of the ice-free corridor and specific Paleoindian sites ([[Clovis culture|Clovis theory]])]]
It is not definitively known how or when Native Americans first [[Settlement of the Americas|settled the Americas]] and the present-day United States. The prevailing theory proposes that people from [[Eurasia]] followed [[Game (hunting)|game]] across [[Beringia]], a [[land bridge]] that connected [[Siberia]] to present-day [[Alaska]] during the [[Last Glacial Period|Ice Age]], and then spread southward throughout the Americas. This migration may have begun as early as 30,000 years ago<ref>{{Cite news |date=October 29, 2007 |title=New Ideas About Human Migration From Asia To Americas |work=ScienceDaily |url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071025160653.htm |url-status=live |access-date=March 12, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110225103124/http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/10/071025160653.htm |archive-date=February 25, 2011}}</ref> and continued through to about 10,000 years ago, when the land bridge became submerged by the rising sea level caused by the melting glaciers.{{Sfn|Kennedy, Cohen, and Bailey|page=6}} These early inhabitants, called [[Paleo-Indians]], soon diversified into hundreds of culturally distinct settlements and [[country|countries]].

This [[pre-Columbian era]] incorporates all [[archaeology of the Americas|periods]] in the [[history of the Americas]] before the appearance of European influences on the American continents, spanning from the original settlement in the [[Upper Paleolithic]] period to [[European colonization of the Americas|European colonization]] during the [[early modern period]]. While the term technically refers to the era before [[Christopher Columbus]]' voyage in 1492, in practice the term usually includes the history of [[indigenous peoples of the Americas|American indigenous cultures]] until they were conquered or significantly influenced by Europeans, even if this happened decades or centuries after Columbus's initial landing.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Defining "Pre-Columbian" and "Mesoamerica" – Smarthistory |url=https://smarthistory.org/pre-columbian-mesoamerica/ |access-date=2022-09-16 |website=smarthistory.org}}</ref>

===Paleo-Indians===
{{Main|Pre-Columbian North America}}
[[File: North American cultural areas.png|thumb|right|The [[cultural area]]s of [[pre-Columbian North America]], according to [[Alfred Kroeber]]]]
By 10,000 BCE, humans were relatively well-established throughout North America. Originally, Paleo-Indians hunted Ice Age [[megafauna]] like [[mammoth]]s, but as they began to go extinct, people turned instead to [[bison]] as a food source. As time went on, foraging for berries and seeds became an important alternative to hunting. Paleo-Indians in central Mexico were the first in the Americas to farm, starting to plant corn, beans, and squash around 8,000 BCE. Eventually, the knowledge began to spread northward. By 3,000 BCE, corn was being grown in the valleys of [[Arizona]] and [[New Mexico]], followed by primitive [[irrigation]] systems and early villages of the [[Hohokam]].{{Sfn|Outline of American History}}{{Sfn|Chenault}}

One of the earlier cultures in the present-day United States was the [[Clovis culture]], who are primarily identified by the use of fluted [[spear]] points called the [[Clovis point]]. From 9,100 to 8,850 BCE, the culture ranged over much of North America and also appeared in South America. Artifacts from this culture were first excavated in 1932 near [[Clovis, New Mexico]]. The [[Folsom tradition|Folsom culture]] was similar, but is marked by the use of the [[Folsom point]].

A later migration identified by linguists, anthropologists, and archeologists occurred around 8,000 BCE. This included [[Na-Dene languages|Na-Dene]]-speaking peoples, who reached the [[Pacific Northwest]] by 5,000 BCE.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Dumond |first=D. E. |date=1969 |title=Toward a Prehistory of the Na-Dene, with a General Comment on Population Movements among Nomadic Hunters |journal=American Anthropologist |volume=71 |issue=5 |pages=857–863 |doi=10.1525/aa.1969.71.5.02a00050 |jstor=670070 |doi-access=free}}</ref> From there, they migrated along the [[West Coast of the United States|Pacific Coast]] and into the interior and constructed large multi-family dwellings in their villages, which were used only seasonally in the summer to hunt and fish, and in the winter to gather food supplies.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Leer |first1=Jeff |title=Interior Tlingit Noun Dictionary: The Dialects Spoken by Tlingit Elders of Carcross and Teslin, Yukon, and Atlin, British Columbia |last2=Hitch |first2=Doug |last3=Ritter |first3=John |date=2001 |publisher=Yukon Native Language Centre |isbn=1-55242-227-5 |location=[[Whitehorse, Yukon Territory]]}}</ref> Another group, the [[Oshara tradition]] people, who lived from 5,500 BCE to 600 CE, were part of the [[Archaic Southwest]].

=== Mound builders and pueblos ===
[[File:Libervox-the-first-corn-native-american-pawnee-legend.ogg|thumb|The First Corn, folktale from the [[Pawnee people]]. Maize was the staple crop for Native American agriculture.]]
{{Main|Mound Builders|Ancestral Puebloans}}
[[File:Grave Creek Mound.jpg|thumb|[[Grave Creek Mound]], located in [[Moundsville, West Virginia]], is one of the largest conical mounds in the United States. It was built by the [[Adena culture]].]]
[[File:Monks Mound in July.JPG|thumb|[[Monks Mound]] of [[Cahokia]] ([[World Heritage Site|UNESCO World Heritage Site]]) in summer]]
[[File:Cliff Palace.JPG|thumb|Cliff Palace, [[Mesa Verde National Park]], a [[World Heritage Site|UNESCO World Heritage Site]]]]
The [[Adena culture|Adena]] began constructing large [[Earthworks (archaeology)|earthwork]] [[mound]]s around 600 BCE. They are the earliest known people to have been [[Mound Builders]], however, there are mounds in the United States that predate this culture. [[Watson Brake]] is an 11-mound complex in [[Louisiana]] that dates to 3,500 BCE, and nearby [[Poverty Point]], built by the [[Poverty Point culture]], is an earthwork complex that dates to 1,700 BCE. These mounds likely served a religious purpose.

The Adenans were absorbed into the [[Hopewell tradition]], a powerful people who traded tools and goods across a wide territory. They continued the Adena tradition of mound-building, with remnants of several thousand still in existence across the core of their former territory in southern [[Ohio]]. The Hopewell pioneered a trading system called the Hopewell Exchange System, which at its greatest extent ran from the present-day Southeast up to the Canadian side of [[Lake Ontario]].<ref name=":8">{{Cite web |title=Hopewell |url=http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=1283 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604015341/http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=1283 |archive-date=June 4, 2011 |access-date=December 31, 2015 |publisher=Ohio History Central}}</ref> By 500 CE, the Hopewellians had too disappeared, absorbed into the larger [[Mississippian culture]].

The Mississippians were a broad group of tribes. Their most important city was [[Cahokia]], near modern-day [[St. Louis|St. Louis, Missouri]]. At its peak in the 12th century, the city had an estimated population of 20,000, larger than the population of London at the time. The entire city was centered around a [[Monks Mound|mound]] that stood {{Convert|100|ft|m |abbr=}} tall. Cahokia, like many other cities and villages of the time, depended on hunting, foraging, trading, and agriculture, and developed a class system with slaves and human sacrifice that was influenced by societies to the south, like the [[Maya peoples|Mayans]].{{Sfn|Outline of American History}}

In the [[Southwestern United States|Southwest]], the [[Ancestral Puebloans|Anasazi]] began constructing stone and adobe pueblos around 900 BCE.<ref name="eb">{{Cite web |title=Ancestral Pueblo culture |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/22804/Ancestral-Pueblo-culture |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150429223628/https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/22804/Ancestral-Pueblo-culture |archive-date=April 29, 2015 |access-date=June 4, 2012 |publisher=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]}}</ref> These apartment-like structures were often built into cliff faces, as seen in the [[Cliff Palace]] at [[Mesa Verde National Park|Mesa Verde]]. Some grew to be the size of cities, with [[Pueblo Bonito]] along the [[Chaco River]] in New Mexico once consisting of 800 rooms.{{Sfn|Outline of American History}}

=== Northwest and northeast ===
{{Main|Indigenous peoples of the Eastern Woodlands|Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast}}
[[File:Tlingit K'alyaan Totem Pole August 2005.jpg|thumb|right|The ''K'alyaan'' [[Totem pole]] of the [[Tlingit]] Kiks.ádi Clan, erected at [[Sitka National Historical Park]] to commemorate the lives lost in the 1804 [[Battle of Sitka]]]]The [[Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast|indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest]] were likely the most affluent Native Americans. Many distinct cultural groups and political entities developed there, but they all shared certain beliefs, traditions, and practices, such as the centrality of [[salmon]] as a resource and spiritual symbol. Permanent villages began to develop in this region as early as 1,000 BCE, and these communities celebrated by the gift-giving feast of the [[potlatch]]. These gatherings were usually organized to commemorate special events such as the raising of a [[Totem pole]] or the celebration of a new chief.

In present-day [[upstate New York]], the [[Iroquois]] formed a [[Confederation|confederacy]] of tribal peoples in the mid-15th century, consisting of the [[Oneida Indian Nation|Oneida]], [[Mohawk people|Mohawk]], [[Onondaga people|Onondaga]], [[Cayuga people|Cayuga]], and [[Seneca people|Seneca]]. Their system of affiliation was a kind of federation, different from the strong, centralized European monarchies.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Woods |first=Thomas E |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dCMcnBRKR-0C&pg=PA62 |title=33 questions about American history you're not supposed to ask |date=2007 |publisher=Crown Forum |isbn=978-0-307-34668-1 |page=62 |access-date=December 31, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160101083603/https://books.google.com/books?id=dCMcnBRKR-0C&pg=PA62 |archive-date=January 1, 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Wright |first=R |title=Stolen Continents: 500 Years of Conquest and Resistance in the Americas |date=2005 |publisher=Mariner Books |isbn=978-0-618-49240-4}}</ref>{{Sfn|Tooker|page=107–128}} Each tribe had seats in a group of 50 [[Sachem|sachem chiefs]]. It has been suggested that their culture contributed to political thinking during the development of the United States government. The Iroquois were powerful, waging war with many neighboring tribes, and later, Europeans. As their territory expanded, smaller tribes were forced further west, including the [[Osage Nation|Osage]], [[Kaw people|Kaw]], [[Ponca]], and [[Omaha people|Omaha]] peoples.{{Sfn|Tooker|page=107–128}}<ref name="Burns">{{Cite web |last=Burns |first=LF |title=Osage |url=http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/O/OS001.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110102050914/http://digital.library.okstate.edu/encyclopedia/entries/O/OS001.html |archive-date=January 2, 2011 |access-date=November 29, 2010 |publisher=Oklahoma Encyclopedia of History and Culture}}</ref>

===Native Hawaiians===
{{Main|Ancient Hawaii|Hawaiian Kingdom|}}

The exact date for the settling of Hawaii is disputed but the first settlement most likely took place between 940 and 1130 CE.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=DYE |first=THOMAS S. |date=2011 |title=A model-based age estimate for Polynesian colonization of Hawai'i |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/j.1834-4453.2011.tb00107.x |journal=Archaeology in Oceania |volume=46 |issue=3 |pages=130–138 |doi=10.1002/j.1834-4453.2011.tb00107.x |issn=0728-4896}}</ref> Around 1200 CE, [[Tahitians|Tahitian]] explorers found and began settling the area as well establishing a new caste system. This marked the rise of the Hawaiian civilization, which would be largely separated from the rest of the world until the arrival of the British 600 years later.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kirch |first=Patrick |title=When Did the Polynesians Settle Hawai'i? |url=https://www.academia.edu/1034367}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Conte |first1=Eric |last2=Anderson |first2=Atholl |date=2003 |title=Radiocarbon Ages for Two Sites on Ua Huka, Marquesas |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/asi.2003.0018 |journal=Asian Perspectives |volume=42 |issue=1 |pages=155–160 |doi=10.1353/asi.2003.0018 |s2cid=162470429 |issn=1535-8283}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=ANDERSON |first1=ATHOLL |last2=LEACH |first2=HELEN |last3=SMITH |first3=IAN |last4=WALTER |first4=RICHARD |date=1994|title=Reconsideration of the Marquesan sequence in East Polynesian prehistory, with particular reference to Hane (MUH1) |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/arco.1994.29.1.29 |journal=Archaeology in Oceania |volume=29 |issue=1 |pages=29–52 |doi=10.1002/arco.1994.29.1.29 |issn=0728-4896}}</ref> Europeans under the British explorer [[James Cook]] arrived in the Hawaiian Islands in 1778, and within five years of contact, European military technology would help [[Kamehameha I]] conquer most of the island group, and eventually unify the islands for the first time; establishing the [[Hawaiian Kingdom]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fitzpatrick |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1151955837 |title=Early mapping of Hawaii |date=March 9, 2020 |isbn=978-1-317-72652-4 |oclc=1151955837}}</ref>

===Puerto Rico===
{{Main|History of Puerto Rico|Taino}}

The island of Puerto Rico has been settled for at least 4,000 years dating back to the remains of Puerto Ferro man. Starting with the [[Ortoiroid people|Ortoiroid culture]], successive generations of native migrations arrived replacing or absorbing local populations. By the year 1000 [[Arawak]] people had arrived from South America via the [[Lesser Antilles]], these settlers would become the [[Taíno]] encountered by the Spanish in 1493. Upon European contact a native population between 30,000 and 60,000 was likely, led by a single chief called a [[Cacique]].<ref name="Rouse 1992">{{Cite book |last=Rouse |first=Irving |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/24469325 |title=The Tainos : rise & decline of the people who greeted Columbus |date=1992 |isbn=0-300-05181-6 |location=New Haven |oclc=24469325}}</ref> Colonization resulted in the decimation of the local inhabitants due to the harsh [[Encomienda]] system and epidemics caused by Old World diseases. Puerto Rico would remain a part of Spain until American annexation in 1898.<ref name="Rouse 1992"/>

===Norse exploration===
{{Main|Norse colonization of North America}}
[[File:Christian-krohg-leiv-eriksson.jpg|thumb|''[[Leiv Eirikson Discovering America]]'' by [[Christian Krohg]], 1893]]
The earliest recorded European mention of America is in a [[Gesta Hammaburgensis ecclesiae pontificum|historical treatise]] by the medieval chronicler [[Adam of Bremen]], circa 1075, where it is referred to as [[Vinland]].{{Efn|'In addition, he [i.e., [[Sweyn II of Denmark|Sweyn Estridsson]], king of Denmark (reigned 1047–1076)] named one more island in this ocean, discovered by many, which is called "Vinland", because vines grow wild there, making the best wine. For [that] crops [that are] not sown, abound there, we learn not from fanciful opinion but from the true account of the Danes.'<ref>{{Cite book |last=von Bremen |first=Adam |url=https://archive.org/stream/adamvonbremenham00adam#page/274/mode/2up |title=Hamburgische Kirchengeschichte |date=1917 |publisher=Hahnsche |editor-last=Schmeidler |editor-first=Bernhard |publication-place=Hannover and Leipzig |pages=275–276 |language=la, de |trans-title=Hamburg's Church History}}</ref>}} It is also extensively referred to in the 13th-century Norse [[Vinland sagas]], which relate to events which occurred around 1000. Whilst the strongest archaeological evidence of the existence of [[Norsemen|Norse]] settlements in America is located in Canada, most notably at [[L'Anse aux Meadows]] and dated to circa 1000, there is significant scholarly debate as to whether Norse explorers also made landfall in [[New England]] and other east-coast areas.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Linden |first=Eugene |title=The Vikings: A Memorable Visit to America |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-vikings-a-memorable-visit-to-america-98090935 |access-date=May 28, 2020 |website=Smithsonian Magazine }}</ref> In 1925, President [[Calvin Coolidge]] declared that a Norse explorer called [[Leif Erikson]] (c.970 – c.1020) was the first European to discover America.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Leif Erikson |url=https://www.history.com/topics/exploration/leif-eriksson |access-date=May 28, 2020 |website=History.com |date=October 10, 2019 |publisher=A&E Television Networks}}</ref>
[[File:Early Localization Native Americans USA.jpg|thumb|Early [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] tribal territories color-coded by [[Indigenous languages of the Americas|linguistic group]]]]

== Colonization, settlement, and communities (1630–1763) ==
{{Main|Colonial history of the United States}}
[[File:Non-Native American Nations Control over N America 1750.png|thumb|European territorial claims in North America, {{Circa|1750}}
{{Legend|#666633|France}}
{{Legend|#D4A71D|Great Britain}}
{{Legend|#D18563|Spain}}]]
After a [[Exploration of North America|period of exploration sponsored by major European states]], the first successful English settlement was established in 1607. Europeans brought horses, cattle, and hogs to the Americas and, in turn, took back maize, turkeys, tomatoes, potatoes, tobacco, beans, and [[Cucurbita|squash]] to Europe. Many explorers and early settlers died after being exposed to new diseases in the Americas. However, the effects of new Eurasian diseases carried by the colonists, especially smallpox and measles, were much worse for the Native Americans, as they had no [[immunity (medical)|immunity]] to them. They [[Native American disease and epidemics|suffered epidemics]] and died in very large numbers, usually before large-scale European settlement began. Their societies were disrupted and hollowed out by the scale of deaths.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Byrne |first=Joseph Patrick |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5Pvi-ksuKFIC&pg=PA415 |title=Encyclopedia of Pestilence, Pandemics, and Plagues |date=2008 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |pages=415–416 |access-date=June 27, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140101125507/http://books.google.com/books?id=5Pvi-ksuKFIC&pg=PA415 |archive-date=January 1, 2014 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Eric Hinderaker |last2=Rebecca Horn |date=2010 |title=Territorial Crossings: Histories and Historiographies of the Early Americas |journal=The William and Mary Quarterly |volume=67 |issue=3 |pages=395 |doi=10.5309/willmaryquar.67.3.395 |jstor=10.5309/willmaryquar.67.3.395}}</ref>

=== First settlements ===
{{Main|European colonization of the Americas}}

==== Spanish contact ====
{{Main|Spanish colonization of the Americas}}
[[Conquistador|Spanish explorers]] were the first Europeans to reach the present-day United States, after [[Christopher Columbus]]'s [[voyages of Christopher Columbus|expeditions]] (beginning in 1492) established [[Spanish West Indies|possessions in the Caribbean]], including the modern-day [[territories of the United States|U.S. territories]] of [[Captaincy General of Puerto Rico|Puerto Rico]], and parts of the [[United States Virgin Islands|U.S. Virgin Islands]]. [[Juan Ponce de León]] landed in [[Spanish Florida|Florida]] in 1513.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Greenberger |first=Robert |title=Juan Ponce de León: the exploration of Florida and the search for the Fountain of Youth |date=2003}}</ref> Spanish expeditions quickly reached the [[Appalachian Mountains]], the [[Mississippi River]], the [[Grand Canyon]],<ref>{{Cite book |last=Pyne |first=Stephen J. |url=https://archive.org/details/howcanyonbecameg00pyne/page/4 |title=How the Canyon Became Grand |date=1998 |publisher=Penguin Books |isbn=978-0-670-88110-9 |publication-place=New York City |pages=[https://archive.org/details/howcanyonbecameg00pyne/page/4 4–7]}}</ref> and the [[Great Plains]].{{Sfn|Day}}
[[File:The Letter of Christopher Columbus on the Discovery of America - Read by Availle for LibriVox's Short Nonfiction Collection Vol. 015 (2010).ogg|thumb|The Letter of [[Christopher Columbus]] on the [[Voyages of Christopher Columbus|Discovery of America]] to [[Ferdinand II of Aragon|King Ferdinand]] and [[Isabella I of Castile|Queen Isabella]] of Spain]]
In 1539, [[Hernando de Soto]] extensively explored the Southeast,{{Sfn|Day}} and a year later [[Francisco Vázquez de Coronado|Francisco Coronado]] explored from Arizona to central Kansas in search of gold.{{Sfn|Day}} Escaped horses from Coronado's party spread over the Great Plains, and the Plains Indians mastered horsemanship within a few generations.{{Sfn|Outline of American History}} Small Spanish settlements eventually grew to become important cities, such as [[San Antonio]], [[Albuquerque, New Mexico|Albuquerque]], [[Tucson, Arizona|Tucson]], Los Angeles, and San Francisco.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Weber |first=David J. |title=New Spain's Far Northern Frontier: Essays on Spain in the American West, 1540–1821 |date=1979}}</ref>

==== Dutch mid-Atlantic ====
{{Main|Dutch colonization of the Americas}}
The [[Dutch East India Company|Dutch West India Company]] sent explorer [[Henry Hudson]] to search for a [[Northwest Passage]] to Asia in 1609. [[New Netherland]] was established in 1621 by the company to capitalize on the [[North American fur trade]]. Growth was slow at first due to mismanagement by the [[Dutch colonization of the Americas|Dutch]] and Native American conflicts. After the Dutch purchased the island of [[Manhattan]] from the Native Americans for a reported price of US$24, the land was named [[New Amsterdam]] and became the capital of New Netherland. The town rapidly expanded and in the mid-1600s it became an important trading center and port. Despite being [[Calvinism|Calvinists]] and building the [[Reformed Church in America]], the Dutch were tolerant of other religions and cultures and traded with the [[Iroquois]] to the north.{{Sfn|Jacobs}}

The colony served as a barrier to British expansion from [[New England Confederation|New England]], and as a result a [[Anglo-Dutch Wars|series of wars]] were fought. The colony was taken over by Britain as [[Province of New York|New York]] in 1664 and its capital was renamed New York City. New Netherland left an enduring legacy on American cultural and political life of religious tolerance and sensible trade in urban areas and rural traditionalism in the countryside (typified by the story of [[Rip Van Winkle]]). Notable [[Dutch Americans|Americans of Dutch descent]] include [[Martin Van Buren]], [[Theodore Roosevelt]], [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], [[Eleanor Roosevelt]] and the [[Frelinghuysen family|Frelinghuysens]].{{Sfn|Jacobs}}

==== Swedish settlement ====
{{Main|New Sweden}}
In the early years of the [[Sweden#Swedish Empire|Swedish Empire]], Swedish, Dutch, and German stockholders formed the [[New Sweden|New Sweden Company]] to trade furs and tobacco in North America. The company's first expedition was led by [[Peter Minuit]], who had been governor of New Netherland from 1626 to 1631 but left after a dispute with the Dutch government, and landed in [[Delaware Bay]] in March 1638. The settlers founded [[Fort Christina]] at the site of modern-day [[Wilmington, Delaware]], and made treaties with the indigenous groups for land ownership on both sides of the [[Delaware River]].<ref name=":5">{{Cite web |title=Brief History of New Sweden in America |url=https://colonialswedes.net/History/History.html |website=colonialswedes.net}}</ref><ref name=":6">{{Cite web |title=The Finns in America. The First Settlers |url=https://www.genealogia.fi/emi/art/article385e.htm |website=www.genealogia.fi |access-date=July 18, 2020 |archive-date=October 1, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201001220039/https://www.genealogia.fi/emi/art/article385e.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Over the following seventeen years, 12 more expeditions brought settlers from the Swedish Empire (which also included contemporary Finland, Estonia, and portions of Latvia, Norway, Russia, Poland, and Germany) to New Sweden. The colony established 19 permanent settlements along with many farms, extending into modern-day [[Maryland]], [[Pennsylvania]], and [[New Jersey]]. It was incorporated into New Netherland in 1655 after a Dutch invasion from the neighboring New Netherland colony during the [[Second Northern War]].<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":6" />

==== French and Spanish conflict ====
[[Giovanni da Verrazzano]] landed in North Carolina in 1524, and was the first European to sail into [[New York Harbor]] and [[Narragansett Bay]]. A decade later, [[Jacques Cartier]] sailed in search of the [[Northwest Passage]], but instead discovered the [[Saint Lawrence River]] and laid the foundation for [[French colonization of the Americas]] in [[New France]]. After the collapse of the first [[Charlesbourg-Royal|Quebec]] colony in the 1540s, French [[Huguenots]] settled at [[Fort Caroline]] near present-day [[Jacksonville, Florida|Jacksonville]] in Florida. In 1565, Spanish forces led by [[Pedro Menéndez de Avilés|Pedro Menéndez]] destroyed the settlement and established the first European settlement in what would become the United States — [[St. Augustine, Florida|St. Augustine]].

After this, the French mostly remained in [[Quebec]] and [[Acadia]], but far-reaching trade relationships with Native Americans throughout the Great Lakes and Midwest spread their influence. French colonists in small villages along the Mississippi and [[Illinois River|Illinois]] rivers lived in farming communities that served as a grain source for Gulf Coast settlements. The French established plantations in Louisiana along with settling [[New Orleans]], [[Mobile, Alabama|Mobile]] and [[Biloxi, Mississippi|Biloxi]].

=== British colonies ===
{{Further|British colonization of the Americas}}

[[File:MayflowerHarbor.jpg|thumb|The ''[[Mayflower]]'', which transported [[Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)|Pilgrims]] to the New World. During the first winter at Plymouth, about half of the Pilgrims died.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mintz |first=Steven |title=Death in Early America |url=http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/usdeath.cfm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101230203658/http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/historyonline/usdeath.cfm |archive-date=December 30, 2010 |access-date=February 15, 2011 |website=Digital History}}</ref>]]

The English, drawn in by [[Francis Drake]]'s raids on [[Spanish treasure fleet|Spanish treasure ships]] leaving the New World, settled the strip of land along the east coast in the 1600s. The first British colony in North America was established at [[Roanoke Colony|Roanoke]] by [[Walter Raleigh]] in 1585, but failed. It would be twenty years before another attempt.{{Sfn|Outline of American History}}

The early British colonies were established by private groups seeking profit, and were marked by starvation, disease, and Native American attacks. Many immigrants were people seeking religious freedom or escaping political oppression, peasants displaced by the [[Industrial Revolution]], or those simply seeking adventure and opportunity.  Between the late 1610s and the Revolution, the British shipped an estimated 50,000 to 120,000 convicts to their American colonies.<ref>James Davie Butler, "British Convicts Shipped to American Colonies," ''American Historical Review'' (1896) 2#1 pp. 12–33 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1833611 in JSTOR]; Thomas Keneally, ''The Commonwealth of Thieves'', Random House Publishing, Sydney, 2005.</ref>

In some areas, Native Americans taught colonists how to plant and harvest the native crops. In others, they attacked the settlers. Virgin forests provided an ample supply of building material and firewood. Natural inlets and harbors lined the coast, providing easy ports for essential trade with Europe. Settlements remained close to the coast due to this as well as Native American resistance and the Appalachian Mountains that were found in the interior.{{Sfn|Outline of American History}}

==== First settlement in Jamestown ====
{{Main|Jamestown, Virginia|Colony of Virginia}}
[[File:Squantoteaching.png|thumb|upright|[[Squanto]], known for having been an early liaison between the native populations in Southern New England and the ''Mayflower'' settlers]]

The first successful English colony, [[Jamestown, Virginia|Jamestown]], was established by the [[London Company|Virginia Company]] in 1607 on the [[James River]] in [[Virginia]]. The colonists were preoccupied with the search for gold and were ill-equipped for life in the New World. Captain [[John Smith (explorer)|John Smith]] held the fledgling Jamestown together in the first year, and the colony descended into anarchy and nearly failed when he returned to England two years later. [[John Rolfe]] began experimenting with tobacco from the West Indies in 1612, and by 1614 the first shipment arrived in London. It became Virginia's chief source of revenue within a decade.

In 1624, after years of disease and Indian attacks, including the [[Indian massacre of 1622|Powhatan attack of 1622]], [[James VI and I|King James I]] revoked the Virginia Company's charter and made Virginia a royal colony.

==== New England Colonies ====
{{Main|New England Colonies|Puritan migration to New England (1620–1640)}}
[[File:Thanksgiving-Brownscombe.jpg|thumb|left|''The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth'', 1914, [[Pilgrim Hall Museum]], [[Plymouth, Massachusetts]]]]

[[New England]] was initially settled primarily by [[Puritans]] fleeing religious persecution. The [[Pilgrims (Plymouth Colony)|Pilgrims]] sailed for Virginia on the Mayflower in 1620, but were knocked off course by a storm and landed at [[Plymouth Colony|Plymouth]], where they agreed to a social contract of rules in the [[Mayflower Compact]]. Like Jamestown, Plymouth suffered from disease and starvation, but local [[Wampanoag]] Indians taught the colonists how to farm maize.

Plymouth was followed by the Puritans and [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]] in 1630. They maintained a charter for self-government separate from England, and elected founder [[John Winthrop]] as the governor for most of its early years. [[Roger Williams]] opposed Winthrop's treatment of Native Americans and religious intolerance, and established the colony of [[Providence Plantations]], later [[Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations|Rhode Island]], on the basis of freedom of religion. Other colonists established settlements in the [[Connecticut River]] Valley, and on the coasts of present-day [[New Hampshire]] and [[Maine]]. Native American attacks continued, with the most significant occurring in the 1637 [[Pequot War]] and the 1675 [[King Philip's War]].

New England became a center of commerce and industry due to the poor, mountainous soil making agriculture difficult. Rivers were harnessed to power grain mills and sawmills, and the numerous harbors facilitated trade. Tight-knit villages developed around these industrial centers, and [[Boston]] became one of America's most important ports.

==== Middle Colonies ====
{{Main|Middle Colonies}}
[[File:Indians at a Hudson Bay Company trading post.jpg|thumb|right|Indians trade packs of furs at a Hudson's Bay Company trading post in the 19th century.]]

In the 1660s, the [[Middle Colonies]] of [[Province of New York|New York]], [[Province of New Jersey|New Jersey]], and [[Delaware Colony|Delaware]] were established in the former Dutch New Netherland, and were characterized by a large degree of ethnic and religious diversity. At the same time, the [[Iroquois]] of New York, strengthened by years of fur trading with Europeans, formed the powerful Iroquois Confederacy.

The last colony in this region was [[Province of Pennsylvania|Pennsylvania]], established in 1681 by [[William Penn]] as a home for religious dissenters, including [[Quakers]], [[Methodism|Methodists]], and the [[Amish]].{{Sfn|Middleton and Lombard}} The capital of the colony, [[Philadelphia]], became a dominant commercial center in a few short years, with busy docks and brick houses. While Quakers populated the city, [[German Americans|German]] immigrants began to flood into the Pennsylvanian hills and forests, while the [[Scotch-Irish Americans|Scots-Irish]] pushed into the far western frontier.

==== Southern Colonies ====
{{Main|Southern Colonies}}
[[File:1622 massacre jamestown de Bry.jpg|thumb|The [[Indian massacre of 1622|Indian massacre of Jamestown settlers]] in 1622. Soon the colonists in the South feared all natives as enemies.]]
The overwhelmingly rural [[Southern Colonies]] contrasted sharply with the New England and Middle Colonies. After Virginia, the second British colony south of New England was [[Province of Maryland|Maryland]], established as a Catholic haven in 1632. The economy of these two colonies was built entirely on [[yeoman]] farmers and planters. The planters established themselves in the [[Tidewater (region)|Tidewater]] region of Virginia, establishing massive [[Plantation complexes in the Southern United States|plantations]] with slave labor.

In 1670, the [[Province of Carolina]] was established, and [[Charleston, South Carolina|Charleston]] became the region's great trading port. While Virginia's economy was also based on tobacco, Carolina was more diversified, exporting rice, indigo, and lumber as well. In 1712, it was divided in two, creating [[Province of North Carolina|North]] and [[Province of South Carolina|South Carolina]]. The [[Province of Georgia|Georgia Colony]] – the last of the Thirteen Colonies – was established by [[James Oglethorpe]] in 1732 as a border to Spanish Florida and a reform colony for former prisoners and the poor.{{Sfn|Middleton and Lombard}}

==== Religion ====
{{Main|History of religion in the United States}}
[[File:Baptism of Pocahontas.jpg|thumb|[[John Gadsby Chapman]], [[United States Capitol rotunda#Baptism of Pocahontas|Baptism of Pocahontas]] (1840), on display in the [[United States Capitol rotunda|Rotunda]] of the [[United States Capitol|U.S. Capitol]]]]

Religiosity expanded greatly after the [[First Great Awakening]], a religious revival in the 1740s which was led by preachers such as [[Jonathan Edwards (theologian)|Jonathan Edwards]] and [[George Whitefield]]. American [[Evangelicalism|Evangelicals]] affected by the Awakening added a new emphasis on divine outpourings of the [[Holy Spirit in Christianity|Holy Spirit]] and conversions that implanted new believers with an intense love for God. Revivals encapsulated those hallmarks and carried the newly created evangelicalism into the early republic, setting the stage for the [[Second Great Awakening]] in the late 1790s.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kidd |first=Thomas S. |title=The Great Awakening: The Roots of Evangelical Christianity in Colonial America |url=https://archive.org/details/greatawakeningbr0000kidd |date=2009|isbn=9780312452254 }}</ref> In the early stages, evangelicals in the South, such as [[Methodism|Methodists]] and [[Baptists in the United States|Baptists]], preached for religious freedom and abolition of slavery; they converted many slaves and recognized some as preachers.

==== Government ====
{{Main|Colonial government in the Thirteen Colonies}}

Each of the 13 American colonies had a slightly different governmental structure. Typically, a colony was ruled by a governor appointed from London who controlled the executive administration and relied upon a locally elected legislature to vote on taxes and make laws. By the 18th century, the American colonies were growing very rapidly as a result of low death rates along with ample supplies of land and food. The colonies were richer than most parts of Britain, and attracted a steady flow of immigrants, especially teenagers who arrived as indentured servants.{{Sfn|Savelle|pages=185–190}}

==== Servitude and slavery ====
{{Main|Indentured servitude in British America|Slavery in the colonial history of the United States}}
Over half of all European immigrants to Colonial America arrived as [[Indentured servitude|indentured servants]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Barker |first=Deanna |title=Indentured Servitude in Colonial America |url=http://www.geocities.com/nai_cilh/servitude.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091022161033/http://geocities.com/nai_cilh/servitude.html |archive-date=October 22, 2009 |publisher=National Association for Interpretation, Cultural Interpretation and Living History Section}}</ref> Few could afford the cost of the journey to America, and so this form of unfree labor provided a means to immigrate. Typically, people would sign a contract agreeing to a set term of labor, usually four to seven years, and in return would receive transport to America and a piece of land at the end of their servitude. In some cases, ships' captains received rewards for the delivery of poor migrants, and so extravagant promises and kidnapping were common. The Virginia Company and the Massachusetts Bay Company also used indentured servant labor.{{Sfn|Outline of American History}}

The first [[Slavery in the United States|African slaves]] were brought to Virginia<ref>{{Cite web |title=First enslaved Africans arrive in Jamestown, setting the stage for slavery in North America |url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-african-slave-ship-arrives-jamestown-colony |publisher=A&E Television networks}}</ref> in 1619,{{Sfn|Corbett et al.}} just twelve years after the founding of Jamestown. Initially regarded as indentured servants who could buy their freedom, the institution of slavery began to harden and the involuntary servitude became lifelong{{Sfn|Corbett et al.}} as the demand for labor on tobacco and rice plantations grew in the 1660s.{{Citation needed |date=August 2020}} Slavery became identified with brown skin color, at the time seen as a "[[Black people|black race]]", and the children of slave women were born slaves (''[[partus sequitur ventrem]]'').{{Sfn|Corbett et al.}} By the 1770s African slaves comprised a fifth of the American population.

The question of independence from Britain did not arise as long as the colonies needed British military support against the French and Spanish powers. Those threats were gone by 1765. However, London continued to regard the American colonies as existing for the benefit of the mother country in a policy known as [[mercantilism]].{{Sfn|Savelle|pages=185–190}}

Colonial America was defined by a severe labor shortage that used forms of [[Unfree labour|unfree labor]], such as [[Slavery in the colonial history of the United States|slavery]] and indentured servitude. The British colonies were also marked by a policy of avoiding strict enforcement of parliamentary laws, known as [[salutary neglect]]. This permitted the development of an American spirit distinct from that of its European founders.{{Sfn|Encarta Online}}

== Revolution and the new nation (1763–1815) ==
{{Main|History of the United States (1776–1789)|History of the United States (1789–1849)}}
{{See also|First Party System|Second Party System}}[[File:Nouvelle-France map-en.svg|thumb|Map of the [[British colonization of the Americas|British]], [[New France|French]] and [[New Spain|Spanish]] settlements in North America in 1750, before the [[French and Indian War]]]]
An upper-class emerged in South Carolina and Virginia, with wealth based on large plantations operated by slave labor. A unique class system operated in [[upstate New York]], where Dutch tenant farmers rented land from very wealthy Dutch proprietors, such as the [[Van Rensselaer (family)|Van Rensselaer family]]. The other colonies were more egalitarian, with Pennsylvania being representative. By the mid-18th century Pennsylvania was basically a middle-class colony with limited respect for its small upper-class. A writer in the ''Pennsylvania Journal'' in 1756 wrote:
{{Blockquote
|The People of this Province are generally of the middling Sort, and at present pretty much upon a Level. They are chiefly industrious Farmers, Artificers or Men in Trade; they enjoy in are fond of Freedom, and the meanest among them thinks he has a right to Civility from the greatest.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rossiter |first=Clinton |title=Seedtime of the Republic: the origin of the American tradition of political liberty |url=https://archive.org/details/seedtimeofrepubl0000ross |date=1953 |page=[https://archive.org/details/seedtimeofrepubl0000ross/page/106 106] |author-link=Clinton Rossiter}}</ref>}}

=== Political integration and autonomy ===
[[File:Benjamin Franklin - Join or Die.jpg|thumb|''[[Join, or Die]]'': This 1756 political cartoon by [[Benjamin Franklin]] urged the colonies to join during the French and Indian War.]]
The [[French and Indian War]] (1754–1763), part of the larger [[Seven Years' War]], was a watershed event in the political development of the colonies. The influence of the French and Native Americans, the main rivals of the [[The Crown|British Crown]] in the colonies and Canada, was significantly reduced and the territory of the [[Thirteen Colonies]] expanded into [[New France]], both in Canada and [[Louisiana (New France)|Louisiana]]. {{Citation needed|reason=A separate government was established in Canada called the Province of Quebec under the authority of the British Army and Louisiana was given to Spain. The thirteen colonies didn't gain any territory from this war.here|date=January 2022}} The war effort also resulted in greater political integration of the colonies, as reflected in the [[Albany Congress]] and symbolized by [[Benjamin Franklin]]'s call for the colonies to "[[Join, or Die]]." Franklin was a man of many inventions – one of which was the concept of a United States of America, which emerged after 1765 and would be realized a decade later.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Brands |first=H.W. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TLdOMa1MEqsC&pg=PA232 |title=The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin |date=2010 |publisher=Random House Digital, Inc. |isbn=9780307754943 |pages=232–40, 510–512 |access-date=June 27, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016105918/https://books.google.com/books?id=TLdOMa1MEqsC&pg=PA232 |archive-date=October 16, 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Taxation without representation ===
{{Further|No taxation without representation}}[[File:Boston Tea Party Currier colored.jpg|thumb|An 1846 painting of the 1773 [[Boston Tea Party]]]]
[[File:Population Density in the American Colonies 1775.gif|thumb|The population density in the [[Thirteen Colonies|American Colonies]] in 1775]]
Following Britain's acquisition of French territory in North America, [[George III|King George III]] issued the [[Royal Proclamation of 1763]], with the goal of organizing the new North American empire and protecting the Native Americans from colonial expansion into western lands beyond the Appalachian Mountains. In the following years, strains developed in the relations between the colonists and the Crown. The [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|British Parliament]] passed the [[Stamp Act 1765|Stamp Act of 1765]], imposing a tax on the colonies, without going through the colonial legislatures. The issue was drawn: did Parliament have the right to tax Americans who were not represented in it? Crying "[[No taxation without representation]]", the colonists refused to pay the taxes as tensions escalated in the late 1760s and early 1770s.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Morgan |first=Edmund S. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Qr_ruAAACAAJ |title=The Birth of the Republic, 1763–89 |date=2012 |publisher=U. of Chicago Press |isbn=9780226923420 |edition=4th |pages=14–27 |access-date=June 27, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016105918/https://books.google.com/books?id=Qr_ruAAACAAJ |archive-date=October 16, 2015 |url-status=live |orig-date=1956}}</ref>

The [[Boston Tea Party]] in 1773 was a direct action by activists in the town of Boston to protest against the new tax on tea. Parliament quickly responded the next year with the [[Intolerable Acts]], stripping Massachusetts of its historic right of self-government and putting it under military rule, which sparked outrage and resistance in all thirteen colonies. [[Patriot (American Revolution)|Patriot]] leaders from every colony convened the [[First Continental Congress]] to coordinate their resistance to the Intolerable Acts. The Congress called for a [[Continental Association|boycott of British trade]], published a [[Declaration and Resolves of the First Continental Congress|list of rights and grievances]], and [[Petition to the King|petitioned the king]] to rectify those grievances.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Allison |first=Robert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D6x7Cmio5hoC |title=The Boston Tea Party |date=2007 |publisher=Applewood Books |isbn=9781933212111 |pages=47–63 |access-date=June 27, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016105918/https://books.google.com/books?id=D6x7Cmio5hoC |archive-date=October 16, 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> This appeal to the Crown had no effect, though, and so the [[Second Continental Congress]] was convened in 1775 to organize the defense of the colonies against the British Army.

Common people became insurgents against the British even though they were unfamiliar with the ideological rationales being offered. They held very strongly a sense of "rights" that they felt the British were deliberately violating – rights that stressed local autonomy, fair dealing, and government by consent. They were highly sensitive to the issue of tyranny, which they saw manifested by the arrival in Boston of the British Army to punish the Bostonians. This heightened their sense of violated rights, leading to rage and demands for revenge, and they had faith that God was on their side.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lender |first=Mark Edward |date=2012 |title=Review of "American Insurgents, American Patriots: The Revolution of the People" (2010) by T. H. Breen |journal=The Journal of Military History |volume=76 |issue=1 |pages=233–234}}</ref>

=== American Revolution ===
{{Main|American Revolution}}
[[File:Declaration of Independence (1819), by John Trumbull.jpg|thumb|[[John Trumbull]]'s ''[[Declaration of Independence (Trumbull)|Declaration of Independence]]'' (1819)]][[File:Snf023 declarationofindependence jefferson bg.ogg|thumb|Reading of The [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]] originally written by [[Thomas Jefferson]], presented on July 4, 1776|left]]
[[File:Washington Crossing the Delaware by Emanuel Leutze, MMA-NYC, 1851.jpg|thumb|right|[[George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River|Washington's surprise crossing of the Delaware River]] in December 1776 was a major comeback after the loss of New York City; his army defeated the British in two battles and recaptured New Jersey.]]The Second Continental Congress voted to declare independence on July 2, 1776, and the [[United States Declaration of Independence|Declaration of Independence]] was drafted by the [[Committee of Five]]. The Declaration of Independence presented arguments in favor of the rights of citizens, stating that [[all men are created equal]], supporting the rights of [[Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness]], and demanding the [[consent of the governed]]. It also listed grievances against the crown.<ref name=":02">{{Cite book |last=Hamowy |first=Ronald |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/9780470756454 |title=A Companion to the American Revolution |publisher=Blackwell |year=2000 |isbn=9780631210580 |editor-last=Pole |editor-first=J. R. |edition=1st |pages=258–261 |chapter=The Declaration of Independence |doi=10.1002/9780470756454 |editor-last2=Greene |editor-first2=J. P.}}</ref> The [[Founding Fathers of the United States|Founding Fathers]] were guided by the ideology of [[republicanism]], rejecting the [[monarchism]] of Great Britain.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wood |first=Gordon S. |date=1990 |title=Classical Republicanism and the American Revolution |url=https://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/chknt66&id=27&div=&collection= |journal=Chicago-Kent Law Review |volume=66 |pages=13}}</ref> The Declaration of Independence was [[Signing of the United States Declaration of Independence|signed]] by members of the Congress on July 4.<ref name=":02" /> This date has since been [[Commemoration of the American Revolution|commemorated]] as [[Independence Day (United States)|Independence Day]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Today in History - July 4 |url=https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/july-04/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221029013828/https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/july-04/ |archive-date=2022-10-29 |access-date=2023-04-27 |website=Library of Congress}}</ref>

The [[American Revolutionary War]] began with the [[Battles of Lexington and Concord]] when American and British forces clashed on April 19, 1775.<ref name=":22">{{Cite book |last=Conroy |first=David W. |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/9780470756454 |title=A Companion to the American Revolution |publisher=Blackwell |year=2000 |isbn=9780631210580 |editor-last=Pole |editor-first=J. R. |edition=1st |pages=216–221 |chapter=Development of a revolutionary organization, 1765–1775 |doi=10.1002/9780470756454 |editor-last2=Greene |editor-first2=J. P.}}</ref> [[George Washington]] was appointed general of the [[Continental Army]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Freeman |first=Douglas S. |title=George Washington: A Biography |date=1948 |isbn=9780678028346 |page=42 |author-link=Douglas Southall Freeman}}</ref> The [[New York and New Jersey campaign]] was the first major campaign of the war, beginning in 1776. Washington's [[George Washington's crossing of the Delaware River|crossing of the Delaware River]] began a series of victories that expelled British forces from New Jersey.{{Sfn|Cogliano|2009|pp=101–102}} The British began the [[Saratoga campaign]] in 1777 to capture [[Albany, New York]] as a [[choke point]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Snow |first=Dean R. |title=1777: Tipping Point at Saratoga |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2016 |isbn=9780190618759 |pages=7–9}}</ref> After American [[Battles of Saratoga|victory at Saratoga]], France, the Netherlands, and Spain began providing support to the Continental Army.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jones |first=Howard |title=Crucible of power: a history of American foreign relations to 1913 |date=2001 |isbn=9780842029186 |page=12}}</ref> Britain responded to defeat in the [[Northern theater of the American Revolutionary War|northern theater]] by advancing in the [[Southern theater of the American Revolutionary War|southern theater]], beginning with the [[Capture of Savannah]] in 1778.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lumpkin |first=Henry |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lnwsAAAAMAAJ |title=From Savannah to Yorktown: The American Revolution in the South |publisher=University of South Carolina Press |year=1981 |isbn=978-0-87249-408-4 |pages=27–30 |language=en}}</ref> American forces reclaimed the south in 1781, and the British Army was defeated in the [[Siege of Yorktown]] on October 19, 1781.{{Sfn|Cogliano|2009|p=110}}



King George III formally ordered the end of hostilities on December 5, 1782, recognizing American independence.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Morris |first=Richard Brandon |url=https://archive.org/details/peacemakersgrea00morr |title=The Peacemakers: The Great Powers and American Independence |publisher=Harper & Row |year=1965 |edition=1st |pages=411–412}}</ref> The [[Treaty of Paris (1783)|Treaty of Paris]] was negotiated between Great Britain and the United States to establish terms of peace. It was signed on September 3, 1783,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-05-10 |title=Treaty of Paris (1783) |url=https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/treaty-of-paris |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221031123838/https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/treaty-of-paris |archive-date=2022-10-31 |access-date=2023-04-28 |website=National Archives |language=en}}</ref> and it was ratified by the [[Congress of the Confederation]] on January 14, 1784.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Confederation Congress's Ratification of the "Treaty of Paris" |url=https://history.house.gov/Historical-Highlights/1700s/The-Continental-Congress-s-ratification-of-the-%E2%80%9CTreaty-of-Paris%E2%80%9D/ |url-status= |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221103022351/https://history.house.gov/Historical-Highlights/1700s/The-Continental-Congress-s-ratification-of-the-%E2%80%9CTreaty-of-Paris%E2%80%9D/ |archive-date=2022-11-03 |website=US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives |language=en}}</ref> Washington [[George Washington's resignation as commander-in-chief|resigned his commission]] as [[commander-in-chief]] of the Continental Army on December 23, 1783.<ref name="house">{{cite web |title=General George Washington Resigned his Commission in Annapolis, Maryland. December 23, 1783 |url=http://history.house.gov/Historical-Highlights/1700s/General-George-Washington-resigning-his-commission-in-Annapolis,-Maryland/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170727042832/http://history.house.gov/Historical-Highlights/1700s/General-George-Washington-resigning-his-commission-in-Annapolis,-Maryland/ |archive-date=July 27, 2017 |access-date=2023-04-28 |website=US House of Representatives: History, Art & Archives |publisher=}}</ref>[[File: United States land claims and cessions 1782-1802.png|thumb|The United States after the [[Treaty of Paris (1783)]], with individual state claims and cessions through 1802]]

=== Confederation period ===
{{Main|Confederation period}}
[[File:Constitution.ogg|thumb|left|Reading of the United States Constitution of 1787]]The [[Articles of Confederation]] were ratified as the governing law of the United States, written to limit the powers of the central government in favor of state governments. This caused [[Financial costs of the American Revolutionary War|economic decline]], as the government was unable to pass economic legislation and pay its debts.<ref name=":52">{{Cite book |last=Van Cleve |first=George William |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5r0lEAAAQBAJ |title=We Have Not a Government: The Articles of Confederation and the Road to the Constitution |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=2019 |isbn=9780226641522 |pages=2–7 |access-date=2022-11-03 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230120192825/https://www.google.com/books/edition/We_Have_Not_a_Government/5r0lEAAAQBAJ |archive-date=2023-01-20 |url-status=live}}</ref> Nationalists worried that the [[Confederation|confederate]] nature of the union was too fragile to withstand an armed conflict with any adversarial states, or even internal revolts such as the [[Shays' Rebellion]] of 1786 in Massachusetts.{{Sfnp|Greene|Pole|2003}}

In the 1780s the national government was able to settle the issue of the western regions of the young United States, which were ceded by the states to Congress and became territories. With the migration of settlers to the Northwest, soon they became [[U.S. state|states]].{{Sfnp|Greene|Pole|2003}} The [[American Indian Wars]] continued in the 1780s as settlers moved west, prompting Native American attacks on American civilians and in turn prompting American attacks on Native American civilians.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Grenier |first=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JGCin1JJp8cC |title=The First Way of War: American War Making on the Frontier, 1607–1814 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2005 |isbn=9781139444705 |pages=146–148 |access-date=2022-11-06 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230120192830/https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_First_Way_of_War/JGCin1JJp8cC |archive-date=2023-01-20 |url-status=live}}</ref> The [[Northwestern Confederacy]] and American settlers began fighting the [[Northwest Indian War]] in the late 1780s; the Northwestern Confederacy received British support, but the settlers received little assistance from the American government.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Herring |first=George |title=From Colony to Superpower: U.S. Foreign Relations Since 1776 |date=2008 |isbn=9780199743773 |pages=43–44, 61–62 |author-link=George C. Herring}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Taylor |first=Alan |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E92aCwAAQBAJ |title=American Revolutions: A Continental History, 1750-1804 |publisher=W. W. Norton & Company |year=2016 |isbn=978-0-393-25387-0 |pages=343 |language=en}}</ref>

Nationalists – most of them war veterans – organized in every state and convinced Congress to call the [[Constitutional Convention (United States)|Philadelphia Convention]] in 1787. The delegates from every state wrote a new [[Constitution of the United States|Constitution]] that created a federal government with a strong president and powers of taxation. The new government reflected the prevailing republican ideals of guarantees of [[Natural rights and legal rights|individual liberty]] and of constraining the power of government through a system of [[separation of powers]].{{Sfnp|Greene|Pole|2003}} A national debate took place over whether the constitution should be ratified, and it was ratified by a sufficient number of states in 1788 to begin forming a federal government.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Countryman |first=Edward |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m_fuBSLGMgIC |title=The American Revolution |date=1985 |publisher=Macmillan |isbn=978-0-8090-2563-3 |pages=193–196 |language=en}}</ref> The [[United States Electoral College]] chose George Washington as the first [[President of the United States]] in 1789.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Berkin |first=Carol |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dBqPVWAD51cC |title=A Brilliant Solution: Inventing the American Constitution |date=2002 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |isbn=978-0-15-602872-1 |pages=192 |language=en}}</ref>[[File:GROWTH1850.JPG|thumb|Economic growth in America per capita income. Index with 1700 set as 100.]]
=== President George Washington ===
{{Main|Presidency of George Washington}}
[[File:Stuart-george-washington-constable-1797.jpg|thumb|right|[[George Washington]]'s legacy remains among the greatest in American history, as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army, hero of the [[American Revolution|Revolution]], and the first President of the United States (by [[Gilbert Stuart|Gilbert Charles Stuart]])]]
[[File:Farewelladdresses 01 various 128kb.ogg|thumb|left|Reading of the [[George Washington's Farewell Address|Farewell address]] of President George Washington, 1796]]

[[George Washington]] – a renowned hero of the American Revolutionary War, commander-in-chief of the [[Continental Army]], and president of the [[Constitutional Convention (United States)|Constitutional Convention]] – became the first President of the United States under the new [[Constitution of the United States|Constitution]] in 1789. The national capital moved from New York to Philadelphia in 1790 and finally settled in Washington D.C. in 1800.

The major accomplishment of the [[Presidency of George Washington|Washington Administration]] was creating a strong national government that was recognized without question by all Americans.<ref>{{Cite book |last=McDonald |first=Forrest |title=The Presidency of George Washington |url=https://archive.org/details/presidencyofgeo000mcdo |date=1974|publisher=Lawrence, University Press of Kansas |isbn=9780700601103 }}</ref> His government, following the vigorous leadership of Treasury Secretary [[Alexander Hamilton]], assumed the debts of the states (the debt holders received federal bonds), created the [[First Bank of the United States|Bank of the United States]] to stabilize the financial system, and set up a uniform system of tariffs (taxes on imports) and other taxes to pay off the debt and provide a financial infrastructure. To support his programs Hamilton created a new political party – the first in the world based on voters{{Vague|date={{CURRENTMONTHNAME}} {{CURRENTYEAR}}}} – the [[Federalist Party]].

To assuage the [[Anti-Federalism|Anti-Federalists]] who feared a too-powerful central government, the Congress adopted the [[United States Bill of Rights]] in 1791. Comprising the first ten amendments of the Constitution, it guaranteed individual liberties such as freedom of speech and religious practice, jury trials, and stated that citizens and states had reserved rights (which were not specified).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Labunski |first=Richard |title=James Madison and the Struggle for the Bill of Rights |date=2008}}</ref>

==== Two-party system ====
{{Main|First Party System}}
[[File:Election Day 1815 by John Lewis Krimmel.jpg|thumb|Depiction of election-day activities in [[Philadelphia]] (by [[John Lewis Krimmel]], 1815)]]
[[Thomas Jefferson]] and [[James Madison]] formed an opposition Republican Party (usually called the [[Democratic-Republican Party]] by political scientists). Hamilton and Washington presented the country in 1794 with the [[Jay Treaty]] that reestablished good relations with Britain. The Jeffersonians vehemently protested, and the voters aligned behind one party or the other, thus setting up the [[First Party System]]. Federalists promoted business, financial and commercial interests and wanted more trade with Britain. Republicans accused the Federalists of plans to establish a monarchy, turn the rich into a ruling class, and making the United States a pawn of the British.<ref name="in JSTOR" /> The treaty passed, but politics became intensely heated.{{Sfn|Miller}}

==== Challenges to the federal government ====
[[File:Lewis_and_clark-expedition.jpg|thumb|200px|[[Corps of Discovery]] meet [[Chinookan peoples|Chinooks]] on the [[Columbia River|Lower Columbia]], October 1805 (painted by [[Charles Marion Russel]], {{Circa|1905}})]]
Serious challenges to the new federal government included the [[Northwest Indian War]], the ongoing [[Cherokee–American wars]], and the 1794 [[Whiskey Rebellion]], in which western settlers protested against a federal tax on liquor. Washington called the state militia and personally led an army against the settlers, as the insurgents melted away and the power of the federal government was firmly established.{{Sfn|Lesson Plan on Washington}}

Washington refused to serve more than two terms – setting a precedent – and in his famous [[George Washington's Farewell Address|farewell address]], he extolled the benefits of federal government and importance of ethics and morality while warning against foreign alliances and the formation of political parties.<ref>{{Cite web |title=George Washington's Farewell Address |url=http://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/milestones/farewell |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080527211849/http://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/milestones/farewell |archive-date=May 27, 2008 |access-date=June 7, 2008 |website=Archiving Early America}}</ref>

[[John Adams]], a Federalist, defeated Jefferson in the 1796 election. War loomed with France and the Federalists used the opportunity to try to silence the Republicans with the [[Alien and Sedition Acts]], build up a large army with Hamilton at the head, and prepare for a French invasion. However, the Federalists became divided after Adams sent a successful peace mission to France that ended the [[Quasi-War]] of 1798.<ref name="in JSTOR">{{Cite journal |last=Smelser |first=Marshall |date=1959 |title=The Jacobin Phrenzy: The Menace of Monarchy, Plutocracy, and Anglophilia, 1789–1798 |journal=The Review of Politics |volume=21 |issue=1 |pages=239–258 |doi=10.1017/S003467050002204X |jstor=1405347|s2cid=144230619 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=McCullough |first=David |title=[[John Adams]] |date=2008 |chapter=10 |author-link=David McCullough}}</ref>

=== Increasing demand for slave labor ===
{{Main|Slavery in the United States}}
[[File:Crowe-Slaves Waiting for Sale - Richmond, Virginia.jpg|thumb|''Slaves Waiting for Sale: Richmond, Virginia'' (by [[Eyre Crowe (painter)|Eyre Crowe]])]]

During the first two decades after the Revolutionary War, there were dramatic changes in the status of slavery among the states and an increase in the number of [[Free negro|freed black]]s. Inspired by revolutionary ideals of the equality of men and influenced by their lesser economic reliance on slavery, northern states abolished slavery.

States of the [[Upland South|Upper South]] made [[manumission]] easier, resulting in an increase in the proportion of [[Free Negro|free blacks]] in the Upper South (as a percentage of the total non-white population) from less than one percent in 1792 to more than 10 percent by 1810. By that date, a total of 13.5 percent of all blacks in the United States were free.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kolchin |first=Peter |title=American Slavery, 1619–1877 |url=https://archive.org/details/americanslavery10000kolc |date=1993 |publisher=Hill and Wang |location=New York |pages=[https://archive.org/details/americanslavery10000kolc/page/79 79]–81 |author-link=Peter Kolchin}}</ref> After that date, with the demand for slaves on the rise because of the Deep South's expanding cotton cultivation, the number of manumissions declined sharply; and an internal U.S. slave trade became an important source of wealth for many planters and traders.

In 1807, with four million slaves already in the United States, Congress severed the U.S.'s involvement with the [[Atlantic slave trade]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Congress abolishes the African slave trade |url=https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/congress-abolishes-the-african-slave-trade |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200412100559/https://www.history.com/this-day-https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/congress-abolishes-the-african-slave-tradein-history/congress-abolishes-the-african-slave-trade |archive-date=April 12, 2020 |access-date=April 11, 2020}}</ref>

=== Louisiana and Jeffersonian republicanism ===
{{Main|Presidency of Thomas Jefferson|Louisiana Purchase}}
[[File:Thomas-Jefferson.jpg|thumb|upright|[[Thomas Jefferson]] saw himself as a man of the frontier and a scientist; he was keenly interested in expanding and exploring the West.]]
[[File:U.S._Territorial_Acquisitions.png|thumb|Territorial expansion; [[Louisiana Purchase]] in white]]
[[File:Journallewisandclarke 06 lewis-clark 64kb.ogg|thumb|Chapter IV of The Journal of Lewis and Clarke (1840), describes the upper Missouri River and its tributaries]]
Jefferson defeated Adams massively for the presidency in the [[1800 United States presidential election|1800 election]]. Jefferson's major achievement as president was the [[Louisiana Purchase]] in 1803, which provided U.S. settlers with vast potential for expansion west of the Mississippi River.{{Sfn|Wood, Empire of Liberty |page=368–374}}
Jefferson, a scientist, supported expeditions to explore and map the new domain, most notably the [[Lewis and Clark Expedition]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ambrose |first=Stephen E. |title=Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West |url=https://archive.org/details/undauntedcourag000ambr |date=1997 |isbn=9780684811079 |author-link=Stephen E. Ambrose}}</ref> Jefferson believed deeply in [[Republicanism in the United States|republicanism]] and argued it should be based on the independent [[yeoman]] farmer and planter; he distrusted cities, factories and banks. He also distrusted the federal government and judges, and tried to weaken the judiciary. However he met his match in [[John Marshall]], a Federalist from Virginia. Although the Constitution specified a [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]], its functions were vague until Marshall, the [[Chief Justice of the United States]] (1801–1835), defined them, especially the power to overturn acts of Congress or states that violated the Constitution, first enunciated in 1803 in ''[[Marbury v. Madison]]''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Smith |first=Jean Edward |title=John Marshall: Definer of a Nation |url=https://archive.org/details/johnmarshalldefi00jean |date=1998 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/johnmarshalldefi00jean/page/309 309]–326|isbn=9780805055108 }}</ref>

=== War of 1812 ===
{{Main|War of 1812}}

Americans were increasingly angry at the British violation of American ships' neutral rights to hurt France, the [[impressment]] (seizure) of 10,000 American sailors needed by the [[Royal Navy]] to fight Napoleon, and British support for hostile Indians attacking American settlers in the [[Midwestern United States|American Midwest]] with the goal of creating a pro-British [[Indian barrier state]] to block American expansion westward. They may also have desired to annex all or part of [[British North America]], although this is still heavily debated.{{Sfn|Stagg, Madison's War|page=4}}<ref>{{Cite book |title=Manifest Destiny and the Expansion of America |url=https://archive.org/details/turningpointsact00carl_912 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2007 |isbn=9781851098330 |editor-last=Carlisle |editor-first=Rodney P. |page=[https://archive.org/details/turningpointsact00carl_912/page/n64 44] |ref={{SfnRef|Carlisle and Golson}} |editor-last2=Golson |editor-first2=J. Geoffrey}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Pratt |first=Julius W. |title=Expansionists of 1812 |date=1925}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Heidler |first1=David |title=The War of 1812 |last2=Heidler |first2=Jeanne T. |page=4}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Tucker |first=Spencer |title=The Encyclopedia of the War of 1812 |page=236}}</ref> Despite strong opposition from the [[Northeastern United States|Northeast]], especially from Federalists who did not want to disrupt trade with Britain, Congress declared war on June 18, 1812.{{Sfn|Wood, Empire of Liberty}}

[[File:Battle erie.jpg|thumb|[[Oliver Hazard Perry]]'s message to [[William Henry Harrison]] after the [[Battle of Lake Erie]] began with: "We have met the enemy and they are ours" (by [[William Henry Powell|William H. Powell]], 1865)<ref>{{Cite web |title="We have met the enemy and they are ours" (U.S. National Park Service) |url=https://www.nps.gov/articles/met-the-enemy-4.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180818083855/https://www.nps.gov/articles/met-the-enemy-4.htm |archive-date=August 18, 2018 |access-date=August 18, 2018}}</ref>]]
The war was frustrating for both sides. Both sides tried to invade the other and were repulsed. The American high command remained incompetent until the last year. The American militia proved ineffective because the soldiers were reluctant to leave home and efforts to invade Canada repeatedly failed. The British blockade ruined American commerce, bankrupted the Treasury, and further angered New Englanders, who smuggled supplies to Britain. The Americans under General [[William Henry Harrison]] finally [[Battle of Lake Erie|gained naval control of Lake Erie]] and defeated the Indians under [[Tecumseh]] in Canada,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Smelser |first=Marshall |date=March 1969 |title=Tecumseh, Harrison, and the War of 1812 |url=http://purl.dlib.indiana.edu/iudl/imh/printable/VAA4025-065-1-a02 |journal=Indiana Magazine of History |volume=65 |issue=1 |pages=25–44 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200325223126/http://fedora.dlib.indiana.edu:8080/iudl-dissem/pdf?fullItemId=%2Fimh%2FVAA4025-065-1-a02 |archive-date=March 25, 2020}}</ref> while [[Andrew Jackson]] ended the Indian threat in the Southeast. The Indian threat to expansion into the Midwest was permanently ended. The British invaded and occupied much of Maine.

The [[Burning of Washington|British raided and burned Washington]], but were [[Battle of Baltimore|repelled at Baltimore]] in 1814 – where the [[The Star-Spangled Banner|"Star Spangled Banner"]] was written to celebrate the American success. In upstate New York a major British invasion of New York State was turned back at the [[Battle of Plattsburgh]]. Finally in early 1815 Andrew Jackson decisively defeated a major British invasion at the [[Battle of New Orleans]], making him the most famous war hero.{{Sfn|Stagg, War of 1812}}

With Napoleon (apparently) gone, the causes of the war had evaporated and both sides agreed to a peace that left the prewar boundaries intact. Americans claimed victory on February 18, 1815, as news came almost simultaneously of Jackson's victory of New Orleans and the [[Treaty of Ghent|peace treaty]] that left the prewar boundaries in place. Americans swelled with pride at success in the "second war of independence"; the naysayers of the antiwar Federalist Party were put to shame and the party never recovered. This helped lead to an emerging American identity that cemented national pride over state pride.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Remini|first=Robert V.|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/167504400|title=A Short history of the United States|date=2008|publisher=HarperCollins Publishers|isbn=978-0-06-083144-8|edition=1st|location=New York|pages=74–75|oclc=167504400}}</ref>

Britain never achieved the war goal of granting the Indians a barrier state to block further American settlement and this allowed settlers to pour into the Midwest without fear of a major threat.{{Sfn|Stagg, War of 1812}} The War of 1812 also destroyed America's negative perception of a [[standing army]], which was proved useful in many areas against the British as opposed to ill-equipped and poorly-trained militias in the early months of the war, and [[United States Department of War|War Department]] officials instead decided to place regular troops as the main military capabilities of the government.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Langguth |first=A.J. |title=Union 1812: The Americans Who Fought the Second War of Independence |url=https://archive.org/details/union181200ajla |date=2006 |chapter=24|isbn=9780743226189 }}</ref>

=== Second Great Awakening ===
{{Main|Second Great Awakening}}
[[File:Camp meeting.jpg|thumb|A drawing of a Protestant camp meeting (by H. Bridport, [[Wiktionary:circa|c.]] 1829)]]
The Second Great Awakening was a Protestant revival movement that affected virtually all of society during the early 19th century and led to rapid church growth. The movement began around 1790, gained momentum by 1800, and, after 1820 membership rose rapidly among [[Baptists in the United States|Baptist]] and [[Methodism|Methodist]] congregations, whose preachers led the movement. It was past its peak by the 1840s.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ahlstrom |first=Sydney |title=A Religious History of the American People |url=https://archive.org/details/religioushistory0000ahls_h4c4 |date=1972 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/religioushistory0000ahls_h4c4/page/415 415]–471}}</ref>

It enrolled millions of new members in existing evangelical denominations and led to the formation of new denominations. Many converts believed that the Awakening heralded a new [[Millennialism|millennial age]]. The Second Great Awakening stimulated the establishment of many reform movements – including [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionism]] and [[Temperance movement|temperance]] designed to remove the evils of society before the anticipated [[Second Coming]] of Jesus Christ.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Smith |first=Timothy L. |title=Revivalism and Social Reform: American Protestantism on the Eve of the Civil War |url=https://archive.org/details/revivalismandsoc012498mbp |date=1957|publisher=Harper Torchbooks }}</ref>

=== Era of Good Feelings ===
{{Main|Era of Good Feelings}}

As strong opponents of the War of 1812, the Federalists held the [[Hartford Convention]] in 1814 that hinted at disunion. National euphoria after the victory at New Orleans ruined the prestige of the Federalists and they no longer played a significant role as a political party.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Banner |first=James |title=To the Hartford Convention: the Federalists and the Origins of Party Politics in Massachusetts, 1789–1815 |url=https://archive.org/details/tohartfordconven0000bann |date=1969}}</ref> President Madison and most Republicans realized they were foolish to let the [[First Bank of the United States]] close down, for its absence greatly hindered the financing of the war. So, with the assistance of foreign bankers, they chartered the [[Second Bank of the United States]] in 1816.{{Sfn|Dangerfield}}{{Sfn|Goodman|pp=56–89}}

[[File:Pioneers Crossing the Plains of Nebraska by C.C.A. Christensen.png|thumb|Settlers crossing the [[Great Plains|Plains of Nebraska]] (by [[C. C. A. Christensen|C.C.A. Christensen]], 19th century)]]
The Republicans also imposed tariffs designed to protect the infant industries that had been created when Britain was blockading the U.S. With the collapse of the Federalists as a party, the adoption of many Federalist principles by the Republicans, and the systematic policy of President [[James Monroe]] in his two terms (1817–1825) to downplay partisanship, society entered an [[Era of Good Feelings]], with far less partisanship than before (or after), and closed out the [[First Party System]].{{Sfn|Dangerfield}}{{Sfn|Goodman|pp=56–89}}

The [[Monroe Doctrine]], expressed in 1823, proclaimed the United States' opinion that European powers should no longer colonize or interfere in the Americas. This was a defining moment in the [[foreign policy of the United States]]. The Monroe Doctrine was adopted in response to American and British fears over Russian and French expansion into the [[Western Hemisphere]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gilderhus |first=Mark T. |date=March 2006 |title=The Monroe Doctrine: Meanings and Implications |journal=Presidential Studies Quarterly |volume=36 |issue=1 |pages=5–16 |doi=10.1111/j.1741-5705.2006.00282.x}}</ref>

In 1832, President [[Andrew Jackson]], 7th President of the United States, ran for a second term under the slogan "Jackson and no bank" and did not renew the charter of the Second Bank, dissolving the bank in 1836.<ref name="North Carolina History" /> Jackson was convinced that central banking was used by the elite to take advantage of the average American, and instead implemented publicly owned banks in various states, popularly known as "pet banks".<ref name="North Carolina History">{{Cite web |title=Andrew Jackson |url=http://www.northcarolinahistory.org/encyclopedia/769/entry |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160127032954/http://www.northcarolinahistory.org/encyclopedia/769/entry |archive-date=January 27, 2016 |website=North Carolina History Project}}</ref>

== Expansion and reform (1815–1860) ==

=== Indian removal ===
{{Main|Indian removal}}
[[File:Trails of Tears en.png|right|thumb|The Indian Removal Act resulted in the transplantation of several [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American tribes]] and the [[Trail of Tears]].]]
In 1830, Congress passed the [[Indian Removal Act]], which authorized the president to negotiate treaties that exchanged Native American tribal lands in the eastern states for lands west of the Mississippi River.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Heidler |first1=David |title=Indian Removal |last2=Heidler |first2=Jeanne T. |date=2006}}</ref> Its goal was primarily to remove Native Americans, including the [[Five Civilized Tribes]], from the American Southeast – they occupied land that settlers wanted.<ref name=":7">{{Cite book |last=Remini |first=Robert Vincent |title=Andrew Jackson and His Indian Wars |date=2002}}</ref>

[[Jacksonian democracy|Jacksonian Democrats]] demanded the forcible removal of native populations who refused to acknowledge state laws to reservations in the West. Whigs and religious leaders opposed the move as inhumane. Thousands of deaths resulted from the relocations, as seen in the [[Cherokee]] [[Trail of Tears]].<ref name=":7" /> The Trail of Tears resulted in approximately 2,000–8,000 of the 16,543 relocated Cherokee perishing along the way.{{Sfn|Stannard|1993 |p=124}}{{Sfn|Thornton| page=75–93}} Many of the [[Seminole|Seminole Indians]] in Florida refused to move west; they fought the Army for years in the [[Seminole Wars]].

=== Second party system ===
{{Main|Second Party System|Presidency of Andrew Jackson}}
After the [[First Party System]] of Federalists and Republicans withered away in the 1820s, the stage was set for the emergence of a new party system based on well organized local parties that appealed for the votes of (almost) all adult white men. The former Jeffersonian (Democratic-Republican) party split into factions. They split over the choice of a successor to President [[James Monroe]], and the party faction that supported many of the old Jeffersonian principles, led by [[Andrew Jackson]] and [[Martin Van Buren]], became the Democratic Party. As Norton explains the transformation in 1828:
{{Blockquote
|Jacksonians believed the people's will had finally prevailed. Through a lavishly financed coalition of state parties, political leaders, and newspaper editors, a popular movement had elected the president. The Democrats became the nation's first well-organized national party, and tight party organization became the hallmark of nineteenth-century American politics.{{Sfn|Norton et al.}}}}

[[File:Clay44b.jpg|thumb|[[Horace Greeley]]'s ''New York Tribune''—the leading Whig paper—endorsed Clay for President and Fillmore for Governor, 1844.]]
Opposing factions led by [[Henry Clay]] helped form the [[Whig Party (United States)|Whig Party]]. The Democratic Party had a small but decisive advantage over the Whigs until the 1850s, when the Whigs fell apart over the issue of slavery.

The great majority of anti-slavery activists, such as [[Abraham Lincoln]] and Mr. Walters, rejected [[William Lloyd Garrison|Garrison's]] theology and held that slavery was an unfortunate social evil, not a sin.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Oakes |first=James |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rK0ThVhgcbAC&pg=PA57 |title=The Radical and the Republican: Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, and the Triumph of Antislavery Politics |date=2008 |publisher=W. W. Norton |isbn=9780393078725 |page=57 |access-date=June 27, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016105918/https://books.google.com/books?id=rK0ThVhgcbAC&pg=PA57 |archive-date=October 16, 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Oshatz |first=Molly |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vVqfW0SXpRUC&pg=PA12 |title=Slavery and Sin: The Fight Against Slavery and the Rise of Liberal Protestantism |date=2011 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=9780199751686 |page=12 |access-date=June 27, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151006213315/https://books.google.com/books?id=vVqfW0SXpRUC&pg=PA12 |archive-date=October 6, 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>

=== Westward expansion and Manifest Destiny ===
{{Main|American frontier|Manifest destiny}}

The American colonies and the newly formed union grew rapidly in population and area, as pioneers pushed the frontier of settlement west.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Hine |first1=Robert V. |title=Frontiers: A Short History of the American West |last2=Faragher |first2=John Mack |date=2008}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=The New Encyclopedia of the American West |date=1998 |editor-last=Lamar |editor-first=Howard R.}}</ref> The process finally ended around 1890–1912 as the last major farmlands and ranch lands were settled. Native American tribes in some places resisted militarily, but they were overwhelmed by settlers and the army and after 1830 were relocated to reservations in the west. The highly influential "[[Frontier thesis]]" of Wisconsin historian [[Frederick Jackson Turner]] argues that the frontier shaped the national character, with its boldness, violence, innovation, [[individualism]], and democracy.{{Sfn|Hine and Faragher, American West |page=10}}

[[File:1850 Woman and Men in California Gold Rush.jpg|thumb|The [[California Gold Rush]] news of gold brought some 300,000 people to California from the rest of the United States and abroad.]]
Recent historians have emphasized the multicultural nature of the frontier. Enormous popular attention in the media focuses on the "Wild West" of the second half of the 19th century. As defined by Hine and Faragher, "frontier history tells the story of the creation and defense of communities, the use of the land, the development of markets, and the formation of states". They explain, "It is a tale of conquest, but also one of survival, persistence, and the merging of peoples and cultures that gave birth and continuing life to America."{{Sfn|Hine and Faragher, American West |page=10}}

The first settlers in the west were the [[Hispanos of New Mexico|Spanish in New Mexico]]; they became U.S. citizens in 1848. The Hispanics in California ("[[Californios]]") were overwhelmed by over 100,000 [[California Gold Rush]] miners. California grew explosively. San Francisco by 1880 had become the economic hub of the entire Pacific Coast with a diverse population of a quarter million.

From the early 1830s to 1869, the [[Oregon Trail]] and its many offshoots were used by over 300,000 settlers. '49ers (in the [[California Gold Rush]]), ranchers, farmers, and entrepreneurs and their families headed to California, Oregon, and other points in the far west. [[Wagon train|Wagon-trains]] took five or six months on foot; after 1869, the trip took 6 days by rail.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Unruh |first=John David |title=[[The Plains Across|The Plains Across: The Overland Emigrants on the Trans-Mississippi West, 1840–1860]] |date=1993 |isbn=978-0-252-06360-2 |page=120}}</ref>

[[Manifest destiny]] was the belief that American settlers were destined to expand across the continent. This concept was born out of "A sense of mission to redeem the Old World by high example ... generated by the potentialities of a new earth for building a new heaven".<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Merk |first1=Frederick |title=Manifest Destiny and Mission in American History: A Reinterpretation |last2=Merk |first2=Lois Bannister |date=1995 |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |isbn=9780674548053 |page=3 |orig-date=1963}}</ref> Manifest Destiny was rejected by modernizers, especially the Whigs like Henry Clay and Abraham Lincoln who wanted to build cities and factories – not more farms.{{Efn|[[Daniel Walker Howe|Howe]] argued that, "American imperialism did not represent an American consensus; it provoked bitter dissent within the national polity."{{Sfn|Howe|page=798}}}} [[History of the Democratic Party (United States)|Democrats]] strongly favored expansion, and won the key election of 1844. After a bitter debate in Congress the [[Texas annexation|Republic of Texas was annexed]] in 1845, leading to war with Mexico, who considered Texas to be a part of Mexico due to the large numbers of Mexican settlers.{{Sfn|Hine and Faragher, American West<!--chapter=6–7-->}}

[[File:Nebel_Mexican_War_12_Scott_in_Mexico_City.jpg|thumb|The American occupation of [[Mexico City]] in 1848]]
The [[Mexican–American War]] (1846–1848) broke out with the Whigs opposed to the war, and the Democrats supporting the war. The U.S. army, using regulars and large numbers of volunteers, defeated the Mexican armies, invaded at several points, [[Battle for Mexico City|captured Mexico City]] and won decisively. The [[Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo]] ended the war in 1848. Many Democrats wanted to annex all of Mexico, but that idea was rejected by [[White Southerners]] who argued that by incorporating millions of [[Mexicans|Mexican people]], mainly of mixed race, would undermine the United States as an exclusively white republic.{{Sfn|Howe|page=798}}

Instead the [[Texas annexation|U.S. took Texas]] and the lightly settled northern parts (California and New Mexico). The Hispanic residents were given full citizenship and the [[Indigenous peoples of Mexico|Mexican Indian]]s became [[Native Americans in the United States|American Indian]]s. Simultaneously, gold was discovered in California in 1849, attracting over 100,000 men to northern California in a matter of months in the California Gold Rush. To clear the state for settlers, the U.S. government began a policy of extermination since termed the [[California genocide]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Madley |first=Benjamin |date=2016 |title=An American Genocide: The United States and the California Indian Catastrophe, 1846–1873}}</ref> A peaceful compromise with Britain gave the U.S. ownership of the [[Oregon Country]], which was renamed the [[Oregon Territory]].{{Sfn|Hine and Faragher, American West}}

The demand for [[guano]] (prized as an agricultural [[fertilizer]]) led the United States to pass the [[Guano Islands Act]] in 1856, which enabled citizens of the United States to take possession, in the name of the United States, of unclaimed islands containing guano deposits. Under the act the United States annexed nearly 100 islands in the Pacific Ocean and the [[Caribbean Sea]]. By 1903, 66 of these islands were recognized as [[territories of the United States]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Vandermeer |first=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AFRQSuQGHiIC |title=The Ecology of Agroecosystems |date=2011 |publisher=Jones & Bartlett Learning |isbn=9780763771539 |page=149}}</ref>

== Civil War and Reconstruction (1860–1876) ==
=== Divisions between North and South ===
{{Main|Origins of the American Civil War|History of the United States (1849–1865)}}
[[File:US Secession map 1863 (BlankMap derived).png|thumb|right|United States map, 1863
{{Legend|#002255| Union states}}

{{Legend|#6895c9| Union territories not permitting slavery}}

{{Legend|#ffff00| Border Union states, permitting slavery}}

{{Legend|#dd5500| Confederate states}}

{{Legend|#EDB360| Union territories permitting slavery (claimed by Confederacy)}}]]

[[File:Frederick Douglass (circa 1879).jpg|thumb|[[Frederick Douglass]] (circa 1879)]]
[[File:Narrativeofthelife 07 douglass 64kb.ogg|thumb|Excerpt of [[Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave|Narrative of the life of Frederick Douglas]], a major inspiration to [[American abolitionist movement|American Abolitionist Movement]]. Warning: file contains explicit language.]]

The central issue after 1848 was the expansion of slavery, with the anti-slavery elements in the North pitted against the pro-slavery elements that dominated the South. A small number of active Northerners were [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionists]] who declared that ownership of slaves was a sin (in terms of [[Protestant theologies|Protestant theology]]) and demanded its immediate abolition. Much larger numbers in the North were against the expansion of slavery, seeking to put it on the path to extinction so that America would be committed to free land (as in low-cost farms owned and cultivated by a family), [[free labor]], and [[Freedom of speech in the United States|free speech]] (as opposed to censorship of abolitionist material in the South). [[Southern Democrats|Southern white Democrats]] insisted that slavery was of economic, social, and cultural benefit to all whites (and even to the slaves themselves), and denounced all anti-slavery spokesmen as "abolitionists".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Forret |first=Jeff |title=Slavery in the United States |date=2012 |publisher=Facts on File}}</ref>

Justifications of slavery included economics, history, religion, legality, social good, and even humanitarianism. Defenders of slavery argued that the sudden end to the slave economy would have had a profound and fatal economic impact in the South where reliance on slave labor was the foundation of their economy. They also argued that if all the slaves were freed, there would be widespread unemployment and chaos.<ref>{{Cite web |last=ushistory.org |title=The Southern Argument for Slavery [ushistory.org] |url=http://www.ushistory.org/us/27f.asp |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170608013217/http://www.ushistory.org/us/27f.asp |archive-date=June 8, 2017 |access-date=June 3, 2017 |website=www.ushistory.org}}</ref>

Religious activists were split on slavery, with the [[Methodism|Methodists]] and [[Baptists in the United States|Baptists]] dividing into northern and southern denominations. In the North, the Methodists, [[Congregational church|Congregationalists]], and [[Quakers]] included many [[Abolitionism|abolitionists]], especially among women activists. (The [[Catholic Church in the United States|Catholic]], [[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopal]] and [[Lutheranism|Lutheran]] denominations largely ignored the slavery issue.)<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sensbach |first=Jon |date=January 2000 |editor-last=Snay |editor-first=Mitchell |title=Review of John R. McKivigan: Religion and the Antebellum Debate Over Slavery |url=http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=3744 |journal=H-SHEAR, H-Net Reviews |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130117042507/http://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=3744 |archive-date=January 17, 2013}}</ref>

=== Compromise of 1850 and popular sovereignty ===
{{Main|Compromise of 1850}}
The issue of slavery in the new territories was seemingly settled by the [[Compromise of 1850]], brokered by Whig [[Henry Clay]] and Democrat [[Stephen A. Douglas|Stephen Douglas]]; the Compromise included the admission of California as a [[Slave states and free states|free state]] in exchange for no federal restrictions on slavery placed on Utah or New Mexico.<ref>{{Cite web |last=ushistory.org |title=The Compromise of 1850 [ushistory.org] |url=http://www.ushistory.org/us/30d.asp |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170602064405/http://www.ushistory.org/us/30d.asp |archive-date=June 2, 2017 |access-date=June 3, 2017 |website=www.ushistory.org}}</ref> A point of contention was the [[Fugitive slave laws in the United States|Fugitive Slave Act]], which increased federal enforcement and required even free states to cooperate in turning over fugitive slaves to their owners. Abolitionists highlighted the Act as particularly harmful in their fight against slavery, as evinced in the best-selling anti-slavery novel ''[[Uncle Tom's Cabin]]'' by [[Harriet Beecher Stowe]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Bordewich |first=Fergus M. |title=America's Great Debate: Henry Clay, Stephen A. Douglas, and the Compromise That Preserved the Union |date=2012}}</ref>

The [[Missouri Compromise|Compromise of 1820]] was repealed in 1854 with the [[Kansas–Nebraska Act]], promoted by Senator Douglas in the name of "[[Popular sovereignty in the United States|popular sovereignty]]" and democracy. It permitted voters to decide on the legality of slavery in each territory, and allowed Douglas to adopt neutrality on the issue of slavery. Anti-slavery forces rose in anger and alarm, forming the new [[History of the Republican Party (United States)|Republican Party]]. Pro- and anti- contingents rushed to Kansas to vote slavery up or down, resulting in a miniature civil war called [[Bleeding Kansas]]. By the late 1850s, the young Republican Party dominated nearly all northern states and thus the electoral college. It insisted that slavery would never be allowed to expand (and thus would slowly die out).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Etcheson |first=Nicole |title=Bleeding Kansas: Contested Liberty in the Civil War Era |date=2006}}</ref>

=== Plantation economy ===
{{Main|Plantation complexes in the Southern United States}}
The Southern slavery-based societies had become wealthy based on their cotton and other agricultural [[commodity]] production, and some particularly profited from the internal slave trade. Northern cities such as Boston and New York, and regional industries, were tied economically to slavery by banking, shipping, and manufacturing, including [[Textile manufacturing|textile mills]]. By 1860, there were four million slaves in [[Southern United States|the South]], nearly eight times as many as there were nationwide in 1790. The [[Plantation complexes in the Southern United States|plantations]] were highly profitable, due to the heavy European demand for raw cotton. Most of the profits were invested in new lands and in purchasing more slaves (largely drawn from the declining tobacco regions).

For the 50 of the country's first 72 years, a slaveholder served as President of the United States and, during that period, only slaveholding presidents were re-elected to second terms.<ref name="pbs">{{Cite web |date=January 25, 2007 |title=Interview: James Oliver Horton: Exhibit Reveals History of Slavery in New York City |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/social_issues/jan-june07/divided_01-25.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131223050216/http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/social_issues/jan-june07/divided_01-25.html |archive-date=December 23, 2013 |access-date=February 11, 2012 |publisher=[[PBS Newshour]]}}</ref> In addition, southern states benefited by their increased apportionment in Congress due to the partial counting of slaves in their populations.

==== Slave rebellions and Abolitionism ====
{{Main|Abolitionism|Dred Scott Decision|Dred Scott v. Sandford|}}
There was resistance to slavery by both peaceful and violent means. Slave rebellions, by [[Gabriel Prosser]] (1800), [[Denmark Vesey]] (1822), [[Nat Turner's slave rebellion|Nat Turner]] (1831), and most famously by [[John Brown's raid on Harpers Ferry|John Brown]] (1859), caused fear in the white South, which imposed stricter oversight of slaves and reduced the rights of [[free people of color|free blacks]].

[[Abolitionism in the United States|Abolitionism]] grew in the north in the decades before the Civil War, while southern states entrenched themselves on upholding slavery fiercely. Former slaves [[Frederick Douglass]] and [[Harriet Tubman]] became leading advocates for abolition.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lee. |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1229562995 |title=The Cambridge Companion to Frederick Douglass |date=2009 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-71787-8 |oclc=1229562995}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Ruuth |first=Marianne |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/26768053 |title=Frederick Douglass |date=1991 |isbn=0-87067-582-6 |edition=Illustrated |location=Los Angeles, California |oclc=26768053}}</ref> However, before 1860 only a minority of northern whites supported abolition, which was often seen as a 'radical' measure. There were violent reactions to abolitionist advocates in the north, notably the burning of an anti slavery society in [[Pennsylvania Hall (Philadelphia)|Pennsylvania Hall]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Farrow |first=Anne |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/58526694 |title=Complicity : how the North promoted, prolonged, and profited from slavery |date=2005 |publisher=Ballantine Books |others=Joel Lang, Jenifer Frank |isbn=0-345-46782-5 |edition=1st |location=New York |oclc=58526694}}</ref>

With political power in Congress being a key flash-point between slave and free states [[Fugitive slave laws in the United States|The Fugitive Slave Act of 1850]] required the states to cooperate with slave owners when attempting to recover escaped slaves, which outraged Northerners. Formerly, an escaped slave that reached a non-slave state was presumed to have attained sanctuary and freedom under the [[Missouri Compromise]]. The Supreme Court's 1857 decision in ''[[Dred Scott v. Sandford]]'' ruled that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional and that free blacks were not citizens of the United States; the decision enraged all major political forces except for southern states. The Republicans worried the decision could be used to expand slavery throughout all states and territories. With senator Abraham Lincoln leading criticism of the ruling, the stage was set for the [[1860 United States presidential election|1860 presidential election]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=D. |first=Rotunda, Ronald |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/769785178 |title=Treatise on constitutional law : substance and procedure |date=1992 |publisher=West Pub. Co |isbn=0-314-00805-5 |oclc=769785178}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Republican Party Platform of 1860 {{!}} The American Presidency Project |url=https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/republican-party-platform-1860 |access-date=2022-09-22 |website=www.presidency.ucsb.edu}}</ref>

=== President Abraham Lincoln and secession ===
{{Main|Abraham Lincoln|1860 United States presidential election|Confederate States of America}}

After [[Abraham Lincoln]] won the [[1860 United States presidential election|1860 election]], seven Southern states [[Secession|seceded]] from the union and set up a newly formed sovereign state, the [[Confederate States of America]] (Confederacy), on February 8, 1861. It attacked [[Fort Sumter]], a U.S. Army fort in South Carolina, thus igniting the war. When Lincoln called for troops to suppress the Confederacy in April 1861, four more states seceded and joined the Confederacy. A few of the (northernmost) "[[Slave states and free states|slave states]]" did not secede and became known as the [[Border states (American Civil War)|border states]]; these were Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri.

During the war, the northwestern portion of Virginia seceded from the Confederacy. and became the new Union state of [[West Virginia]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stampp |first=Kenneth |title=The Causes of the Civil War |date=2008}}</ref> West Virginia is usually associated with the [[Border states (American Civil War)|border states]].

=== Civil War ===
{{Main|American Civil War}}
[[File:69th New York at church.jpg|thumb|Officers and soldiers of the [[Irish Catholics|Irish-Catholic]] [[69th New York Infantry Regiment|69th New York Volunteer Regiment]] attend Catholic services in 1861.]]
[[File:Kurz and Allison - Battle of Franklin, November 30, 1864.jpg|thumb|right|The [[Battle of Franklin (1864)|Battle of Franklin]], November 30, 1864]]
The Civil War began April 12, 1861, when [[Battle of Fort Sumter|Confederate forces attacked a U.S. military installation at Fort Sumter]] in [[South Carolina]]. In response, Lincoln called on the states to send troops to recapture forts, protect the capital, and "preserve the Union," which in his view still existed intact despite the actions of the seceding states. The two armies had their first major clash at the [[First Battle of Bull Run]], which proved to both sides that the war would be much longer and bloodier than originally anticipated.{{Sfn|Guelzo, Fateful Lightning}}

[[File:PinkertonLincolnMcClernand.jpg|thumb|upright|Lincoln with [[Allan Pinkerton]] and Major General [[John Alexander McClernand]] at the [[Battle of Antietam]]]]
In the [[Western Theater of the American Civil War|western theater]], the [[Union Army]] was relatively successful, with major battles, such as [[Battle of Perryville|Perryville]] and [[Battle of Shiloh|Shiloh]] along with [[Union Navy]] gunboat dominance of navigable rivers producing strategic Union victories and destroying major Confederate operations.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Woodworth |first=Stephen E. |title=Decision in the Heartland: The Civil War in the West |date=2011}}</ref>

[[File:Gettysburg by Britton.ogg|thumb|Modern recording of [[Abraham Lincoln]]'s [[Gettysburg Address]]]]
Warfare in the [[Eastern Theater of the American Civil War|eastern theater]] began poorly for the Union. U.S. General [[George B. McClellan]] failed to capture the Confederate capital of [[Richmond, Virginia]] in his [[Peninsula campaign]] and [[Seven Days Battles|retreated after attacks]] from Confederate General [[Robert E. Lee]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Catton |first=Bruce |title=The Army of the Potomac: Mr. Lincoln's Army |url=https://archive.org/details/brucecatton0000unse |date=1962}}</ref> Meanwhile, both sides concentrated in 1861–1862 on raising and training new armies. The main action was Union success in controlling the border states, with Confederates largely driven out of border states.<ref name=":10">{{Cite book |last=McPherson |first=James M. |title=To Conquer a Peace? |work=Civil War Times |volume=46 |pages=26–33 |author-link=James M. McPherson |issue=2 |orig-date=March/April 2007}}</ref>

The autumn 1862 Confederate retreat at the [[Battle of Antietam]] led to Lincoln's warning he would issue an [[Emancipation Proclamation]] in January 1863 if the states did not return. Making slavery a central war goal energized Republicans in the North, as well as their enemies, the anti-war [[Copperhead (politics)|Copperhead]] Democrats and ended the chance of British and French intervention.<ref name=":10" />

Lee's smaller [[Army of Northern Virginia]] won battles in late 1862 and spring 1863, but he pushed too hard and ignored the Union threat in the west. Lee invaded Pennsylvania in search of supplies and to cause [[war-weariness]] in the North. In perhaps the [[turning point of the American Civil War|turning point of the war]], Lee's army was badly beaten by the [[Army of the Potomac]] at the July 1863 [[Battle of Gettysburg]] and barely made it back to Virginia.<ref name=":10" /> Survivors of the Battle of Gettysburg were immediately redeployed to suppress the [[New York City draft riots]] by Irish Americans first resisting [[Conscription in the United States|Civil War conscription]] but later out of racism aganist the city's free black population.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The New York City Draft Riots of 1863 |url=https://press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/317749.html |access-date=2022-09-24 |website=press.uchicago.edu}}</ref>

In July 1863, Union forces under General [[Ulysses S. Grant]] gained control of the Mississippi River at the [[Siege of Vicksburg|Battle of Vicksburg]], thereby splitting the Confederacy. In 1864, Union General [[William Tecumseh Sherman]] marched south from [[Chattanooga, Tennessee|Chattanooga]] to capture [[Atlanta]], a decisive victory that ended war jitters among Republicans in the North and helped Lincoln win re-election.

On the homefront, industrial expansion in the North expanded dramatically, using its extensive railroad service, and moving industrial workers into munitions factories. Foreign trade increased, with the United States providing both food and cotton to Britain, and Britain sending in manufactured products and thousands of volunteers for the Union Army (plus a few to the [[Confederate army]]). The British operated [[Blockade runners of the American Civil War|blockade runners]] bringing in food, luxury items and munitions to the Confederacy, bringing out tobacco and cotton. The Union blockade increasingly shut down Confederate ports, and by late 1864 the blockade runners were usually captured before they could make more than a handful of runs.

The last two years of the war were bloody for both sides, with Sherman marching almost unopposed through southern states, burning cities, destroying plantations, ruining railroads and bridges, but avoiding civilian casualties. Sherman demonstrated that the South was unable to resist a Union invasion. Much of the Confederate heartland was destroyed, and could no longer provide desperately needed supplies to its armies. In spring 1864, Grant launched a [[attrition warfare|war of attrition]] and pursued Lee to the final, [[Appomattox campaign]] which resulted in Lee surrendering in April 1865.

The American Civil War was the world's earliest [[industrial warfare|industrial war]]. Railroads, the telegraph, steamships, and mass-produced weapons were employed extensively. The mobilization of civilian factories, mines, shipyards, banks, transportation and food supplies all foreshadowed the impact of industrialization in [[World War I]]. It remains the deadliest war in American history, resulting in the deaths of about 750,000 soldiers and an undetermined number of [[civilian casualties]].{{Efn|A new way of calculating casualties by looking at the deviation of the death rate of men of fighting age from the norm through analysis of census data found that at least 627,000 and at most 888,000 people, but most likely 761,000 people, died through the war.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Hacker |first=J. David |date=September 20, 2011 |title=Recounting the Dead |work=[[New York Times]] |url=https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/20/recounting-the-dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171220224039/https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/20/recounting-the-dead |archive-date=December 20, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hacker |first=J. David |date=2011 |title=A census-based count of the Civil War dead |journal=Civil War History |volume=57 |issue=4 |pages=307–48 |doi=10.1353/cwh.2011.0061 |pmid=22512048|s2cid=30195230 }}</ref>}} About ten percent of all Northern males 20–45 years old, and 30 percent of all Southern white males aged 18–40 died.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Huddleston |first=John |title=Killing Ground: The Civil War and the Changing American Landscape |url=https://archive.org/details/killinggroundpho0000hudd |date=2002 |page=[https://archive.org/details/killinggroundpho0000hudd/page/3 3]|isbn=9780801867736 }}</ref> Its legacy includes ending slavery in the United States, restoring the Union, and strengthening the role of the federal government.

According to historian [[Allan Nevins]], the Civil War had a major long-term impact on the United States in terms of developing its leadership potential and metaphorically moving the country beyond the adolescent stage:
{{Blockquote
|The fighting and its attendant demands upon industry, finance, medicine, and law also helped train a host of leaders who during the next 35 years, to 1900, made their influence powerfully felt on most of the social, economic, and cultural fronts. It broke down barriers of parochialism; it ended distrust of large-scale effort; it hardened and matured the whole people emotionally. The adolescent land of the 1850s…rose under the blows of battle to adult estate. The nation of the post-Appomattox generation, though sadly hurt (especially in the South) by war losses, and deeply scarred psychologically (especially in the North) by war hatreds and greeds, had at last the power, resolution, and self-trust of manhood.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Nevins |first=Allan |title=Introduction|year=1913 |url=https://archive.org/details/introductiontoro00nevi }} in {{Cite book | first=Paul | last=Gates | title=Agriculture and the Civil War | url=https://archive.org/details/agriculturecivil0000unse_c8h7 | date=1965 | page=v| publisher=New York, Knopf }}</ref>
}}

=== Emancipation ===
{{See also|Military history of African Americans in the American Civil War|Emancipation Proclamation|End of slavery in the United States of America}}
{{Emancipation Proclamation draft}}
[[File:The Emancipation Proclamation - read by Winston Tharp for LibriVox's Short Nonfiction Collection Vol. 028 (2013).ogg |alt=Emancipation Proclamation |left|thumb|Modern reading of President [[Abraham Lincoln]]'s [[Emancipation Proclamation]] of 1863 giving freedom to all African Americans who resided within the [[Confederate States of America|Confederacy]] but not those within the [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]].]]
The [[Emancipation Proclamation]] was an executive order issued by President [[Abraham Lincoln]] on January 1, 1863. In a single stroke it changed the legal status, as recognized by the U.S. government, of 3 million slaves in designated areas of the Confederacy from "slave" to "free". It had the practical effect that as soon as a slave escaped the control of the Confederate government, by running away or through advances of federal troops, the slave became legally and actually free.{{Sfn|Guelzo, Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation}}

The owners were never compensated. Plantation owners, realizing that emancipation would destroy their economic system, sometimes moved their slaves as far as possible out of reach of the Union army. By June 1865, the Union Army controlled all of the Confederacy and liberated all of the designated slaves.{{Sfn|Guelzo, Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation}} Large numbers moved into camps run by the [[Freedmen's Bureau]], where they were given food, shelter, medical care, and arrangements for their employment were made.

The severe dislocations of war and Reconstruction had a large negative impact on the black population, with a large amount of sickness and death.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Downs |first=Jim |title=Sick from Freedom: African-American Illness and Suffering during the Civil War and Reconstruction |date=2015}}</ref>

=== Reconstruction ===
{{Main|Reconstruction era}}
{{See also|History of the United States (1865–1918)}}

[[File:FreedmenVotingInNewOrleans1867.jpeg|thumb|[[Freedman|Freedmen]] voting in New Orleans, 1867]]
Reconstruction lasted from Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation of January 1, 1863, to the [[Compromise of 1877]].{{Sfn|Guelzo, Fateful Lightning}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Foner |first=Eric |title=A Short History of Reconstruction |url=https://archive.org/details/shorthistoryofre00eric |date=1990 |publisher=Harper & Row |isbn=9780060964313 |author-link=Eric Foner}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Summers |first=Mark Wahlgren |title=The Ordeal of the Reunion: A New History of Reconstruction |date=2014}}</ref>

The major issues faced by Lincoln were the status of the ex-slaves ("Freedmen"), the loyalty and civil rights of ex-rebels, the status of the 11 ex-Confederate states, the powers of the federal government needed to prevent a future civil war, and the question of whether Congress or the President would make the major decisions.

The severe threats of starvation and displacement of the unemployed Freedmen were met by the first major federal relief agency, the [[Freedmen's Bureau]], operated by the Army.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cimbala |first=Paul A. |title=The Freedmen's Bureau: Reconstructing the American South after the Civil War |date=2005}}</ref>

Three "[[Reconstruction Amendments]]" were passed to expand civil rights for black Americans: the [[Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Thirteenth Amendment]] outlawed slavery; the [[Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fourteenth Amendment]] guaranteed equal rights for all and citizenship for blacks; the [[Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fifteenth Amendment]] prevented race from being used to disenfranchise men.

==== Radical Reconstruction ====
{{Main|Radical Republicans}}
Ex-Confederates remained in control of most Southern states for over two years, but changed when the [[Radical Republicans]] gained control of Congress in the 1866 elections. President [[Andrew Johnson]], who sought easy terms for reunions with ex-rebels, was virtually powerless in the face of the Radical Republican Congress; he was impeached, but the Senate's attempt to remove him from office failed by one vote. Congress enfranchised black men and temporarily stripped many ex-Confederate leaders of the right to hold office. New Republican governments came to power based on a coalition of Freedmen made up of [[Carpetbagger]]s (new arrivals from the North), and [[Scalawag]]s (native white Southerners). They were backed by the U.S. Army. Opponents said they were corrupt and violated the rights of whites.{{Sfn|Rable}}

==== KKK and the rise of Jim Crow laws====
{{Main|Ku Klux Klan|Jim Crow laws|Nadir of American race relations}}
[[File:Atlanta roundhouse ruin3.jpg|thumb|Atlanta's railyard and roundhouse in ruins shortly after the end of the Civil War]]
State by state, the New Republicans lost power to a conservative-Democratic coalition, which gained control of the entire South by 1877. In response to Radical Reconstruction, the [[Ku Klux Klan]] (KKK) emerged in 1867 as a white-supremacist organization opposed to black civil rights and Republican rule. President Ulysses Grant's vigorous enforcement of the [[Third Enforcement Act|Ku Klux Klan Act]] of 1870 shut down the Klan, and it disbanded.{{Sfn|Rable}}

Paramilitary groups, such as the [[White League]] and [[Red Shirts (United States)|Red Shirts]] emerged about 1874 that worked openly to use intimidation and violence to suppress black voting to regain white political power in states across the South during the 1870s. One historian described them as the military arm of the Democratic Party.{{Sfn|Rable}}

Reconstruction ended after the disputed [[1876 United States presidential election|1876 election]]. The [[Compromise of 1877]] gave Republican candidate [[Rutherford B. Hayes]] the White House in exchange for removing all remaining federal troops in the South. The federal government withdrew its troops from the South, and Southern Democrats took control of every Southern state.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ayers |first=Edward L. |title=The Promise of the New South: Life After Reconstruction |url=https://archive.org/details/promiseofnewso00ayer |date=1992 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/promiseofnewso00ayer/page/3 3]–54|isbn=978-0-19-503756-2 }}</ref> In 1882, the United States passed its first major exclusionary immigration acts, the [[Chinese Exclusion Act]] (which barred all Chinese immigrants except for students and businessmen),<ref name="Anderson Diplomacy">{{cite journal|author=David L. Anderson|title=The Diplomacy of Discrimination: Chinese Exclusion, 1876–1882|journal=California History|volume=57|issue=1|year=1978|pages=32–45|doi=10.2307/25157814|jstor=25157814}}</ref> and the [[Immigration Act of 1882]] (which barred all immigrants with mental health issues).<ref>Roger Daniels and Otis L. Graham, Debating American Immigration, 1882–present (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2001), 14.</ref>

From 1890 to 1908, southern states effectively [[Disenfranchisement after the Reconstruction era|disfranchised]] most black voters and many poor whites by making voter registration more difficult through [[Poll taxes in the United States|poll taxes]], [[literacy test]]s, and other arbitrary devices. They passed segregation laws and imposed second-class status on blacks in a system known as [[Jim Crow laws|Jim Crow]] that lasted until the [[Civil rights movement]].{{Sfn|Vann Woodward}}

== Development of modern America (1876–1914) ==
{{Main|Gilded Age|Industrial Revolution in the United States}}

=== Frontier and the railroad ===
{{Main|History of rail transportation in the United States}}
[[File:East west shaking hands by russell.jpg|thumb|The completion of the Transcontinental Railroad (1869) at [[First transcontinental railroad]], by Andrew J. Russell]]
[[File:Transcontinentalrailroad 14 bailey 128kb.ogg|thumb|Reading of an excerpt of The Story of the First Trans-Continental Railroad by William Francis Bailey]]
The latter half of the nineteenth century was marked by the rapid development and settlement of the far West, first by wagon trains and riverboats and then aided by the completion of the [[transcontinental railroad]]. Large numbers of European immigrants (especially from Germany and Scandinavia) took up low-cost or free farms in the Prairie States. Mining for silver and copper opened up the Mountain West.

==== Indian wars ====
{{Main|American Indian Wars}}
The United States Army fought frequent small-scale wars with Native Americans as settlers encroached on their traditional lands. Gradually the U.S. purchased the Native American tribal lands and extinguished their claims, forcing most tribes onto subsidized [[Indian reservation|reservations]]. According to the [[United States Census Bureau|U.S. Bureau of the Census]] (1894), from 1789 to 1894:
{{Blockquote|The [[American Indian Wars|Indian wars]] under the government of the United States have been more than 40 in number. They have cost the lives of about 19,000 white men, women and children, including those killed in individual combats, and the lives of about 30,000 Indians. The actual number of killed and wounded Indians must be very much higher than the given… Fifty percent additional would be a safe estimate.<ref>{{Cite book |last=[[U.S. Bureau of the Census]] |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KWkUAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA637 |title=Report on Indians taxed and Indians not taxed in the United States (except Alaska) |date=1894 |isbn=9780883544624 |page=637 |access-date=June 27, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150518093120/https://books.google.com/books?id=KWkUAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA637 |archive-date=May 18, 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>}}

=== Gilded Age ===
{{Main|Gilded Age}}
[[File:Andrew Carnegie, three-quarter length portrait, seated, facing slightly left, 1913.jpg|thumb|upright|Scottish immigrant [[Andrew Carnegie]] led the enormous expansion of the American steel industry.]]

The "Gilded Age" was a term that [[Mark Twain]] used to describe the period of the late 19th century with a dramatic expansion of American wealth and prosperity, underscored by the mass corruption in the government. Reforms of the Age included the [[Pendleton Civil Service Reform Act|Civil Service Act]], which mandated a competitive examination for applicants for government jobs. Other important legislation included the [[Interstate Commerce Act of 1887|Interstate Commerce Act]], which ended railroads' discrimination against small shippers, and the [[Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890|Sherman Antitrust Act]], which outlawed monopolies in business. Twain believed that this age was corrupted by such elements as land speculators, scandalous politics, and unethical business practices.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Trachtenberg |first=Alan |title=The Incorporation of America: Culture and Society in the Gilded Age |date=2007}}</ref>

Since the days of [[Charles A. Beard]] and [[Matthew Josephson]], some historians have argued that the United States was effectively [[Plutocracy|plutocratic]] for at least part of the [[Gilded Age]] and [[Progressive Era]].{{Sfn|Beard}}<ref>{{Cite book |last=Josephson |first=Matthew |title=The robber barons: The great American capitalists, 1861–1901 |url=https://archive.org/details/robberbaronsgrea00jose |date=1934|publisher=New York, Harcourt, Brace and company }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Pettigrew |first=Richard Franklin |title=Triumphant Plutocracy: The Story of American Public Life from 1870 to 1920 |date=2010 |publisher=Nabu Press |isbn=978-1146542746}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |title=Historical dictionary of the Gilded Age |date=2003 |publisher=M.E. Sharpe |isbn=978-0765603319 |editor-last=Schlup |editor-first=Leonard |publication-place=Armonk, N.Y. |pages=145 |editor-last2=Ryan |editor-first2=James G.}}, (foreword by Vincent P. De Santis)</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Reed |first=John Calvin |title=The New Plutocracy |date=1903}}</ref> As financiers and industrialists such as [[J. P. Morgan|J.P. Morgan]] and [[John D. Rockefeller]] began to amass vast fortunes, many U.S. observers were concerned that the nation was losing its pioneering egalitarian spirit.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Piketty |first=Thomas |title=[[Capital in the Twenty-First Century]] |date=2014 |publisher=[[Belknap Press]] |isbn=978-0674430006 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780674430006/page/348 348]–349 |author-link=Thomas Piketty}}</ref>

By 1890 American industrial production and per capita income exceeded those of all other countries. In response to heavy debts and decreasing farm prices, wheat and cotton farmers joined the [[People's Party (United States)|Populist Party]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Mintz |first=Steven |date=June 5, 2008 |title=Learn About the Gilded Age |url=http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/modules/gilded_age/index.cfm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080516192932/http://digitalhistory.uh.edu/modules/gilded_age/index.cfm |archive-date=May 16, 2008 |access-date=June 5, 2008 |website=Digital History |publisher=University of Houston}}</ref> An unprecedented wave of [[immigration to the United States|immigration]] from Europe served to both provide the labor for American industry and create diverse communities in previously undeveloped areas. From 1880 to 1914, peak years of immigration, more than 22 million people migrated to the United States.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Growth of U.S. Population |url=http://www.theusaonline.com/people/growth.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100123083235/http://www.theusaonline.com/people/growth.htm |archive-date=January 23, 2010 |website=TheUSAonline.com}}</ref>

Most were unskilled workers who quickly found jobs in mines, mills, and factories. Many immigrants were craftsmen (especially from Britain and Germany) bringing human skills, and others were farmers (especially from Germany and Scandinavia) who purchased inexpensive land on the Prairies from railroads who sent agents to Europe. Poverty, growing inequality and dangerous working conditions, along with [[History of the socialist movement in the United States|socialist]] and [[Anarchism in the United States|anarchist]] ideas diffusing from European immigrants, led to the rise of the [[Labor history of the United States|labor movement]], which often included violent strikes.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Bacon |first=Katie |date=June 12, 2007 |title=The Dark Side of the Gilded Age |publisher=[[The Atlantic]] |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2007/06/the-dark-side-of-the-gilded-age/306012 |access-date=March 24, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161223114403/http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2007/06/the-dark-side-of-the-gilded-age/306012 |archive-date=December 23, 2016}}</ref>{{Sfn|Zinn|pages=264–282}}

==== Unions and strikes ====
{{Main|Labor history of the United States}}
[[File:Thejungle 09 sinclair 64kb.ogg|thumb|Chapter 9 of ''[[The Jungle]]'', a 1906 [[Muckraker|muckracking]] novel by [[Upton Sinclair]] describing corruption in the Gilded Age]]

Skilled workers banded together to control their crafts and raise wages by forming labor unions in industrial areas of the Northeast. Before the 1930s few factory workers joined the [[Labor history of the United States|unions in the labor movement]]. [[Samuel Gompers]] led the [[American Federation of Labor]] (1886–1924), coordinating multiple unions. Industrial growth was rapid, led by [[John D. Rockefeller]] in oil and [[Andrew Carnegie]] in steel; both became leaders of philanthropy ([[The Gospel of Wealth|Gospel of Wealth]]), giving away their fortunes to create the modern system of hospitals, universities, libraries, and foundations.

[[File:Mulberry Street NYC c1900 LOC 3g04637u edit.jpg|thumb|[[Mulberry Street (Manhattan)|Mulberry Street]], along which Manhattan's [[Little Italy, Manhattan|Little Italy]] is centered. [[Lower East Side]], circa 1900. Almost 97% of residents of the 10 largest American cities of 1900 were non-Hispanic whites.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The First Measured Century: An Illustrated Guide to Trends in America, 1900–2000 |url=https://www.pbs.org/fmc/book/1population10.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170815021759/http://www.pbs.org/fmc/book/1population10.htm |archive-date=August 15, 2017 |publisher=[[Public Broadcasting Service]] (PBS)}}</ref>]]

The [[Panic of 1893]] broke out and was a severe nationwide depression impacting farmers, workers, and businessmen who saw prices, wages, and profits fall.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Hoffmann |first=Charles |date=1956 |title=The Depression of the Nineties |journal=The Journal of Economic History |volume=16 |issue=2 |pages=137–164 |doi=10.1017/S0022050700058629 |jstor=2114113|s2cid=155082457 }}</ref> Many railroads went bankrupt. The resultant political reaction fell on the Democratic Party, whose leader President [[Grover Cleveland]] shouldered much of the blame. Labor unrest involved numerous strikes, most notably the violent [[Pullman Strike]] of 1894, which was shut down by federal troops under Cleveland's orders. The [[People's Party (United States)|Populist Party]] gained strength among cotton and wheat farmers, as well as coal miners, but was overtaken by the even more popular [[Free silver]] movement, which demanded using silver to enlarge the money supply, leading to inflation that the silverites promised would end the depression.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Miller |first=Worth Robert |date=1993 |title=A Centennial Historiography of American Populism |url=http://history.missouristate.edu/wrmiller/Populism/texts/historiography.htm |journal=Kansas History |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=54–69 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100702202601/http://history.missouristate.edu/wrmiller/Populism/Texts/historiography.htm |archive-date=July 2, 2010}}</ref>

The financial, railroad, and business communities fought back hard, arguing that only the gold standard would save the economy. In the most intense election in U.S. history, conservative Republican [[William McKinley]] defeated silverite [[William Jennings Bryan]], who ran on the Democratic, Populist, and Silver Republican tickets. Bryan swept the South and West, but McKinley ran up landslides among the middle class, industrial workers, cities, and among upscale farmers in the Midwest.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Harpine |first=William D. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0LANgsuVoBwC |title=From the Front Porch to the Front Page: McKinley and Bryan in the 1896 Presidential Campaign |date=2006 |publisher=Texas A&M University Press |isbn=9781585445592 |pages=176–186 |access-date=June 27, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150929001850/https://books.google.com/books?id=0LANgsuVoBwC |archive-date=September 29, 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Prosperity returned under McKinley, the gold standard was enacted, and the tariff was raised. By 1900 the U.S. had the strongest economy on the globe. Apart from two short recessions (in 1907 and 1920) the overall economy remained prosperous and growing until 1929. Republicans, citing McKinley's policies, took the credit.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Morgan |first=H. Wayne |date=1966 |title=William McKinley as a Political Leader |journal=The Review of Politics |volume=28 |issue=4 |pages=417–432 |doi=10.1017/S0034670500013188 |jstor=1405280|s2cid=145544412 }}</ref>

=== Imperialism ===
{{Further|American imperialism|Spanish–American War}}
[[File:Victor Gillam A Thing Well Begun Is Half Done 1899 Cornell CUL PJM 1136 01.jpg|right|thumb|This cartoon reflects the view of [[Judge (magazine)|Judge magazine]] regarding America's imperial ambitions following a quick victory in the Spanish–American War of 1898.<ref>{{Cite web |title=A Thing Well Begun Is Half Done |url=https://digital.library.cornell.edu/catalog/ss:3293822 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170726170633/https://digital.library.cornell.edu/catalog/ss:3293822 |archive-date=July 26, 2017 |access-date=July 22, 2017 |website=Persuasive Maps: PJ Mode Collection |publisher=Cornell University}}</ref> The American flag flies from the Philippines and Hawaii in the Pacific to Cuba and Puerto Rico in the Caribbean.]]
The United States emerged as a world economic and military power after 1890. The main episode was the [[Spanish–American War]], which began when Spain refused American demands to reform its oppressive policies in [[Cuba]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Paterson |first=Thomas G. |date=1996 |title=United States Intervention in Cuba, 1898: Interpretations of the Spanish-American-Cuban-Filipino War |journal=The History Teacher |volume=29 |issue=3 |pages=341–361 |doi=10.2307/494551 |jstor=494551}}</ref> The "splendid little war", as one official called it, involved a series of quick American victories on land and at sea. At the [[Treaty of Paris (1898)|Treaty of Paris]] peace conference the United States acquired the [[Philippines]], [[Puerto Rico]], and [[Guam]].<ref name="Harrington">{{Cite journal |last=Harrington |first=Fred H. |date=1935 |title=The Anti-Imperialist Movement in the United States, 1898–1900 |journal=The Mississippi Valley Historical Review |volume=22 |issue=2 |pages=211–230 |doi=10.2307/1898467 |jstor=1898467}}</ref>

Cuba became an independent country, under close American tutelage. Although the war itself was widely popular, the peace terms proved controversial. [[William Jennings Bryan]] led his Democratic Party in opposition to control of the Philippines, which he denounced as [[American imperialism|imperialism]] unbecoming to American democracy.<ref name="Harrington" /> President [[William McKinley]] defended the acquisition and was riding high as society had returned to prosperity and felt triumphant in the war. McKinley easily defeated Bryan in a rematch in the [[1900 United States presidential election|1900 presidential election]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last=Bailey |first=Thomas A. |author-link=Thomas A. Bailey |date=1937 |title=Was the Presidential Election of 1900 a Mandate on Imperialism? |journal=The Mississippi Valley Historical Review |volume=24 |issue=1 |pages=43–52 |doi=10.2307/1891336 |jstor=1891336}}</ref>

After defeating an [[Philippine–American War|insurrection by Filipino nationalists]], the United States achieved little in the Philippines except in education, and it did something in the way of public health. It also built roads, bridges, and wells, but infrastructural development lost much of its early vigor with the failure of the railroads.{{Sfn|Stanley|pages=269–272}} By 1908, however, Americans lost interest in an empire and turned their international attention to the Caribbean, especially the building of the [[Panama Canal]]. The canal opened in 1914 and increased trade with Japan and the rest of the Far East. A key innovation was the [[Open Door Policy]], whereby the imperial powers were given equal access to Chinese business, with not one of them allowed to take control of China.{{Sfn|Jensen et al.}}

=== Progressive era ===
{{Main|Progressive Era}}
[[File:American 1902 Fourth of July fireworks.jpg|thumb|American children of many ethnic backgrounds celebrate noisily in a 1902 ''[[Puck (magazine)|Puck]]'' cartoon.]]

Dissatisfaction on the part of the growing middle class with the corruption and inefficiency of politics as usual, and the failure to deal with increasingly important urban and industrial problems, led to the dynamic [[Progressivism|Progressive Movement]] starting in the 1890s. In every major city and state, and at the federal level as well, and in education, medicine, and industry, the progressives called for the modernization and reform of decrepit institutions, the elimination of corruption in politics, and the introduction of efficiency as a criterion for change.<ref name="digital history progressive"/>

Leading politicians from both parties, most notably [[Theodore Roosevelt]], [[Charles Evans Hughes]], and [[Robert M. La Follette|Robert La Follette]] on the Republican side, and [[William Jennings Bryan]] and [[Woodrow Wilson]] on the Democratic side, took up the cause of progressive reform. Women became especially involved in demands for female suffrage, prohibition, and better schools. Their most prominent leader was [[Jane Addams]] of Chicago, who created [[Settlement movement|settlement houses]].<ref name="digital history progressive"/>

[[Muckraker|"Muckraking" journalists]] such as [[Upton Sinclair]], [[Lincoln Steffens]] and [[Jacob Riis]] exposed corruption in business and government along with rampant inner-city poverty. Progressives implemented antitrust laws and regulated such industries of meat-packing, drugs, and railroads. Four new constitutional amendments – the [[Sixteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Sixteenth]] through [[Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Nineteenth]] – resulted from progressive activism, bringing the federal income tax, direct election of Senators, prohibition, and female suffrage.<ref name="digital history progressive">{{Cite web |last=Mintz |first=Steven |date=2006 |title=Learn About the Progressive Era |url=http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/modules/progressivism/index.cfm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071012035636/http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/modules/progressivism/index.cfm |archive-date=October 12, 2007 |access-date=February 6, 2008 |website=Digital History |publisher=[[University of Houston]]}}</ref>

The period also saw a major transformation of the banking system with the creation of the [[Federal Reserve|Federal Reserve System]] in 1913<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kazin |first=Michael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fsWLGcZ7pyAC&pg=PA181 |title=The Concise Princeton Encyclopedia of American Political Turn up History |date=2011 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=9781400839469 |page=181 |display-authors=etal |access-date=November 29, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160519113935/https://books.google.com/books?id=fsWLGcZ7pyAC&pg=PA181 |archive-date=May 19, 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref> and the arrival of [[cooperative banking]] in the US with the founding of the first [[credit union]] in 1908.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Credit Union History |url=https://www.acumuseum.org/credit-union-history |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180612184356/https://www.acumuseum.org/credit-union-history |archive-date=June 12, 2018 |access-date=November 29, 2018}}</ref> The Progressive Movement lasted through the 1920s; the most active period was 1900–1918.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mowry |first=George |title=The Era of Theodore Roosevelt and the Birth of Modern America, 1900–1912 |date=1954 |publisher=Harpers}}</ref>

=== Women's suffrage ===
{{Further|Women's suffrage in the United States}}
[[File:Articles by and photo of Charlotte Perkins Gilman in 1916.jpg|thumb|right|[[Charlotte Perkins Gilman]] (pictured) wrote these articles about [[feminism]] for the ''Atlanta Constitution,'' published on December 10, 1916.]]
[[File:Trialofsusanbanthony 18 anonymous 128kb.ogg|thumb|Excerpt of a reading of [[Susan B. Anthony|Susan B Anthony]]'s 1873 speech at her trial advocating for woman's suffrage, arguing that it was guaranteed by the [[Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|15th amendment]].  Anthony was found guilty of voting illegally in New York, her trial had no jury and the fine issued against her was never enforced to prevent her case from being taken to the [[Supreme court]]. Anthony remained prominent in American [[First-wave feminism]] until her death in 1906.]]

The women's suffrage movement began with the June 1848 National Convention of the [[Liberty Party (United States, 1840)|Liberty Party]]. Presidential candidate [[Gerrit Smith]] argued for and established women's suffrage as a party plank. One month later, his cousin [[Elizabeth Cady Stanton]] joined with [[Lucretia Mott]] and other women to organize the [[Seneca Falls Convention]], featuring the [[Declaration of Sentiments]] demanding equal rights for women, and the right to vote.{{Efn|The [[Seneca Falls Convention]] was preceded by the [[Anti-Slavery Convention of American Women]] in 1837 held in New York City, at which women's rights issues were debated, especially African-American women's rights.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Gordon |first1=Ann D. |title=African American women and the vote, 1837–1965 |last2=Collier-Thomas |first2=Bettye |date=1997 |publisher=University of Massachusetts Press |isbn=978-1-55849-059-8 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/africanamericanw0000unse_q4k8/page/2 2–9] |chapter=Introduction |author-link=Ann D. Gordon |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/africanamericanw0000unse_q4k8/page/2}}</ref>}}

Many of these activists became politically aware during the abolitionist movement. The women's rights campaign during "[[first-wave feminism]]" was led by Stanton, [[Lucy Stone]] and [[Susan B. Anthony]], among many others. Stone and [[Paulina Kellogg Wright Davis|Paulina Wright Davis]] organized the prominent and influential [[National Women's Rights Convention]] in 1850.<ref name=":11">{{Cite book |last=Mead |first=Rebecca J. |title=How the Vote Was Won: Woman Suffrage in the Western United States, 1868–1914 |date=2006}}</ref>

The movement reorganized after the Civil War, gaining experienced campaigners, many of whom had worked for prohibition in the [[Woman's Christian Temperance Union|Women's Christian Temperance Union]]. By the end of the 19th century a few western states had granted women full voting rights,<ref name=":11" /> though women had made significant legal victories, gaining rights in areas such as property and child custody.{{Sfn|Glenda Riley}}

Around 1912 the [[feminist movement]] began to reawaken, putting an emphasis on its demands for equality and arguing that the corruption of American politics demanded purification by women.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kraditor |first=Aileen S. |title=The Ideas of the Woman Suffrage Movement: 1890–1920 |date=1967 |author-link=Aileen S. Kraditor}}</ref> Protests became increasingly common as suffragette [[Alice Paul]] led parades through the capital and major cities. Paul split from the large [[National American Woman Suffrage Association]] (NAWSA), which favored a more moderate approach and supported the Democratic Party and Woodrow Wilson, led by [[Carrie Chapman Catt]], and formed the more militant [[National Woman's Party]]. Suffragists were arrested during their "[[Silent Sentinels]]" pickets at the White House, the first time such a tactic was used, and were taken as [[political prisoner]]s.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Adams |first1=Katherine H. |title=Alice Paul and the American Suffrage Campaign |last2=Keene |first2=Michael L. |date=2007}}</ref>

The old anti-suffragist argument that only men could fight in a war, and therefore only men deserve the right to vote, was refuted by the enthusiastic participation of tens of thousands of American women on the home front in World War I. Across the world, industrialized countries with similar experiences gave women the right to vote. Furthermore, most of the states in the western U.S. had already given the women the right to vote in state and federal elections, and the representatives from those states, including the first woman elected to the House of Representatives, [[Jeannette Rankin]] of Montana, demonstrated that woman suffrage was a success. The main resistance came from the south, where white leaders were worried about the threat of black women voting. Congress passed the [[Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Nineteenth Amendment]] in 1919, and women could vote in 1920.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Frost-Knappman |first1=Elizabeth |title=Women's Suffrage in America |last2=Cullen-Dupont |first2=Kathryn |date=2004}}</ref>

NAWSA became the [[League of Women Voters]], and the National Woman's Party began lobbying for full equality and the [[Equal Rights Amendment]], which would pass Congress during the second wave of the women's movement in 1972. Politicians responded to the new electorate by emphasizing issues of special interest to women, especially prohibition, child health, and world peace.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dumenil |first=Lynn |title=The Modern Temper: American Culture and Society in the 1920s |url=https://archive.org/details/moderntemperamer00dume |date=1995 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/moderntemperamer00dume/page/98 98]–144|isbn=9780809069781 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Andersen |first=Kristi |title=After Suffrage: Women in Partisan and Electoral Politics before the New Deal |url=https://archive.org/details/aftersuffragewom00ande |date=1996 |publisher=University of Chicago |isbn=9780226019574 |author-link=Kristi Andersen}}</ref> The main surge of women voting came in 1928, when the big-city machines realized they needed the support of women to elect [[Al Smith]], a Catholic from New York City. Meanwhile, Protestants mobilized women to support Prohibition and vote for Republican [[Herbert Hoover]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lichtman |first=Allan J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KbGiJpDk6pwC&pg=PA163 |title=Prejudice and the Old Politics: The Presidential Election of 1928 |date=2000 |publisher=Lexington Books |isbn=9780739101261 |page=163 |access-date=June 27, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016105918/https://books.google.com/books?id=KbGiJpDk6pwC&pg=PA163 |archive-date=October 16, 2015 |url-status=live |orig-date=1979}}</ref>
{{Gallery |align=center
 |width=180 |lines=4
|File:Rose-Sanderson-Votes-for-Women.jpeg|Women suffragists demonstrating for the right to vote in 1913
|File:Suffragists Parade Down Fifth Avenue, 1917.JPG|Women's suffragists parade in New York City in 1917, carrying placards with signatures of more than a million women.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1917 |title=Suffragists Parade Down Fifth Avenue – 1917 |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=http://www.nytstore.com/Suffragists-Parade-Down-Fifth-Avenue--1917_p_5258.html |url-status=live |access-date=August 17, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150106222925/http://www.nytstore.com/Suffragists-Parade-Down-Fifth-Avenue--1917_p_5258.html |archive-date=January 6, 2015}}</ref>
|File:Women voter outreach 1935 English Yiddish.jpg|Women surrounded by posters in English and [[Yiddish]] supporting [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], [[Herbert H. Lehman]], and the [[American Labor Party]] teach other women how to vote, 1936
}}

== Modern America and World Wars (1914–1945) ==

=== War, prosperity, and the Great Depression (1914–1933) ===
{{Main|History of the United States (1918–1945)}}
{{seealso|American entry into World War I|United States home front during World War I|United States in World War I|Roaring Twenties|Great Depression in the United States|Causes of the Great Depression}}
[[File:Cimetière américain de Romagne-sous-Montfaucon - 1918 - France.JPG|right|thumb|The American [[Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery|Cemetery at Romagne-sous-Montfaucon]]]]
As [[World War I]] raged in Europe from 1914, President [[Woodrow Wilson]] took full control of foreign policy, declaring neutrality but warning Germany that resumption of [[unrestricted submarine warfare]] against American ships supplying goods to Allied nations would mean war. Germany decided to take the risk and try to win by cutting off supplies to Britain through the sinking of ships such as the [[Sinking of the RMS Lusitania|RMS Lusitania]]. The U.S. declared war in April 1917 mainly from the threat of the [[Zimmermann Telegram]].<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia |title=Germany's Decision for Unrestricted Submarine Warfare and Its Impact on the U.S. Declaration of War |encyclopedia=World War I: Encyclopedia |publisher=ABC-CLIO |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2YqjfHLyyj8C&pg=PA482 |access-date=June 27, 2015 |last=McNabb |first=James B. |date=2005 |editor-last=Roberts, Priscilla Mary |pages=482–483 |isbn=9781851094202 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151007155500/https://books.google.com/books?id=2YqjfHLyyj8C&pg=PA482 |archive-date=October 7, 2015 |editor2=Spencer Tucker |url-status=live}}</ref>

American money, food, and munitions arrived in Europe quickly, but troops had to be drafted and trained. By the summer of 1918 [[American Expeditionary Forces]] soldiers under General [[John J. Pershing]]'s [[American Expeditionary Forces]] arrived at the rate of 10,000 a day, while Germany was unable to replace its losses.{{Sfn|Coffman}} Dissent against the war was suppressed by the [[Sedition Act of 1918]] & [[Espionage Act of 1917]]. German language, leftist & pacifist publications were suppressed, and over 2,000 were imprisoned for speaking out against the war. The political prisoners were later released by U.S. President [[Warren G. Harding]].<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal |date=March 1, 1996 |title=American Political Prisoners: Prosecutions under the Espionage and Sedition Acts. By Stephen M. Kohn. (Westport: Praeger, 1994. xviii, ISBN 0-275-94415-8.) |journal=Journal of American History |volume=82 |issue=4 |pages=1688 |doi=10.1093/jahist/82.4.1688-a |issn=0021-8723}}</ref>

The result was [[Allies of World War I|Allied]] victory in November 1918. President Wilson demanded Germany depose the Kaiser and accept his terms in the famed [[Fourteen Points]] speech. Wilson dominated the [[Paris Peace Conference (1919–1920)|1919 Paris Peace Conference]] but Germany was treated harshly by the Allies in the [[Treaty of Versailles]] (1919) as Wilson put all his hopes in the new [[League of Nations]]. Wilson refused to compromise with Senate Republicans over the issue of Congressional power to declare war, and the Senate rejected the Treaty and the League.{{Sfn|Cooper}}

[[File:Prohibition.jpg|thumb|[[Prohibition in the United States|Prohibition]] agents destroying barrels of alcohol in Chicago, 1921]]

In the 1920s the U.S. grew steadily in stature as an economic and military world power. The United States Senate did not ratify the [[Treaty of Versailles]] imposed by its [[Allies of World War I|Allies]] on the defeated [[Central Powers]]; instead, the United States chose to pursue [[unilateralism]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=April 29, 1991 |title=Feature: World War I and isolationism, 1913–33 |publisher=U.S. Department of State |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1584/is_n17_v2/ai_11173912 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090102113850/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1584/is_n17_v2/ai_11173912 |archive-date=January 2, 2009}}</ref> The aftershock of Russia's [[October Revolution]] resulted in real fears of Communism in the United States, leading to a [[First Red Scare|Red Scare]] and the deportation of aliens considered subversive.

[[File:Money supply during the great depression era.png|thumb|right|Money supply decreased a lot between [[Wall Street Crash of 1929|Black Tuesday]] and the [[Emergency Banking Act|Bank Holiday in March 1933]] when there were massive [[bank run]]s across the United States.]]

While public health facilities grew rapidly in the Progressive Era, and hospitals and medical schools were modernized,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Carlisle |first=Rodney P. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dYwn0je9MfYC&pg=PT245 |title=Handbook to Life in America |date=2009 |publisher=Infobase Publishing |isbn=9781438119014 |page=245ff |access-date=June 27, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016105918/https://books.google.com/books?id=dYwn0je9MfYC&pg=PT245 |archive-date=October 16, 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> the country in 1918 and 1919 lost approximately 675,000 lives to the [[Spanish flu]] pandemic.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/1918-commemoration/1918-pandemic-history.htm|title=History of 1918 Flu Pandemic &#124; Pandemic Influenza (Flu) &#124; CDC|date=January 22, 2019}}</ref>
[[File:I Got The Ritz From The One I Love.ogg|thumb|''I Got The Ritz From The One I Love,'' 1932]]
In 1920, the manufacture, sale, import and export of alcohol were prohibited by the [[Eighteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Eighteenth Amendment]], [[Prohibition in the United States|Prohibition]]. The result was that in cities illegal alcohol became a big business, largely controlled by racketeers.

The second [[Ku Klux Klan]] grew rapidly in 1922–1925, then collapsed. Immigration laws were passed to strictly limit the number of new entries. The 1920s were called the [[Roaring Twenties]] due to the great economic prosperity during this period. [[Jazz]] became popular among the younger generation, and thus the decade was also called the [[Jazz Age]].

The Great Depression (1929–1939) and the New Deal (1933–1936) were decisive moments in American political, economic, and social history that reshaped the nation.{{Sfn|Kennedy, Freedom from Fear}}[[File:Lange-MigrantMother02.jpg|thumb|[[Dorothea Lange]]'s ''Migrant Mother'' depicts destitute pea pickers in California, centering on [[Florence Owens Thompson]], a mother of seven, age 32, in [[Nipomo, California]], March 1936.]]
During the 1920s, the nation enjoyed widespread prosperity, albeit with a weakness in agriculture. A financial bubble was fueled by an inflated [[stock market]], which later led to the [[Wall Street Crash of 1929|Stock Market Crash]] on October 29, 1929.<ref>{{Harvard citation no brackets|Shlaes|2008 |pp=85, 90}}</ref> This, along with [[causes of the Great Depression|many other economic factors]], triggered a worldwide [[economic depression|depression]] known as the [[Great Depression]]. During this time, the United States experienced [[deflation]] as prices fell, unemployment soared from 3% in 1929 to 25% in 1933, farm prices fell by half, and manufacturing output plunged by one-third.

[[File:Fireside Chat 1 On the Banking Crisis (March 12, 1933) Franklin Delano Roosevelt edited.ogg|alt=Fireside Chat|thumb|left|President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt|Franklin Roosevelt]] engaged in radio [[Fireside chats]] as means with regularly communicating with the public, this was innovative for the time. During the first visit of a sitting U.S. president to Brazil, 1936.]]

[[File:Vargas e Roosevelt.jpg|thumb|Brazilian President [[Getúlio Vargas]] (left) and U.S. President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] (right) in 1936]]

=== New Deal and World War II (1933–1945) ===
{{Main|New Deal|World War II}}

{{Further|Good Neighbor policy|Military history of the United States during World War II|United States home front during World War II|American women in World War II}}

In 1932, [[History of the Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] presidential nominee [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] promised "a [[New Deal]] for the American people", coining the enduring label for his domestic policies. The result was a series of permanent reform programs including Relief for the unemployed, assistance for the elderly, jobs for young men, social security, unemployment insurance, public housing, bankruptcy insurance, farm subsidies, and regulation of financial securities.<ref name=":12">{{Cite journal |last=Kennedy |first=David M. |author-link=David M. Kennedy (historian) |date=Summer 2009 |title=What the New Deal Did |journal=Political Science Quarterly |volume=124 |issue=2 |pages=251–268 |doi=10.1002/j.1538-165X.2009.tb00648.x}}</ref>

State governments added new programs as well and introduced the sales tax to pay for them. Ideologically the revolution established [[modern liberalism in the United States]] and kept the Democrats in power in Washington almost continuously for three decades thanks to the [[New Deal coalition]] of ethnic whites, blacks, blue-collar workers, labor unions, and white Southerners. It provided relief to the long-term unemployed through numerous programs, such as the [[Works Progress Administration]] (WPA) and for young men, the [[Civilian Conservation Corps]]. Large scale spending projects designed to provide private sector construction jobs and rebuild the infrastructure were under the purview of the [[Public Works Administration]].<ref name=":12" />

The [[Second New Deal]] was a turn to the left in 1935–1936, building up labor unions through the [[National Labor Relations Act of 1935|Wagner Act]]. Unions became a powerful element of the merging [[New Deal coalition]], which won reelection for Roosevelt in 1936, 1940, and 1944 by mobilizing union members, blue-collar workers, relief recipients, big city machines, ethnic, and religious groups (especially Catholics and Jews) and the white South, along with blacks in the North (where they could vote). Roosevelt seriously weakened his second term by a failed effort to pack the Supreme Court, which had been a center of conservative resistance to his programs.<ref name=":12" />

Most of the relief programs were dropped after 1938 in the 1940s when the conservatives regained power in Congress through the [[Conservative coalition]]. Of special importance is the [[Social Security (United States)|Social Security program]], begun in 1935. The economy basically recovered by 1936, but had a sharp, short recession in 1937–1938; long-term unemployment, however, remained a problem until it was solved by wartime spending.<ref name=":12" />

In an effort to denounce past U.S. interventionism and subdue any subsequent fears of Latin Americans, Roosevelt announced on March 4, 1933, during his inaugural address, "In the field of World policy, I would dedicate this nation to the policy of the good neighbor, the neighbor who resolutely respects himself and, because he does so, respects the rights of others, the neighbor who respects his obligations and respects the sanctity of his agreements in and with a World of neighbors."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Roosevelt |first=Franklin Delano |title=First Inaugural Address |date=March 4, 1933 |publication-place=Washington DC |author-link=Franklin Delano Roosevelt}}</ref>

To create a friendly relationship between the United States and Central as well as South American countries, Roosevelt sought to stray from asserting military force in the region.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Good Neighbor Policy, 1933 – 1921–1936 – Milestones |url=https://history.state.gov/milestones/1921-1936/good-neighbor |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190717192011/https://history.state.gov/milestones/1921-1936/good-neighbor |archive-date=July 17, 2019 |publisher=Office of the Historian}}</ref> This position was affirmed by [[Cordell Hull]], Roosevelt's Secretary of State at a conference of American states in [[Montevideo]] in December 1933. For Hispanics in the United States, however, the Great Depression was a difficult period, as the [[Mexican Repatriation]] resulted in the dislocation of an estimated 400,000 Mexicans and Mexican Americans.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Ray |first=Eric L. |date=2005 |title=Mexican Repatriation and the Possibility for a Federal Cause of Action: A Comparative Analysis on Reparations |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40176606 |journal=The University of Miami Inter-American Law Review |volume=37 |issue=1 |pages=171–196 |jstor=40176606 |issn=0884-1756}}</ref>[[File:The USS Arizona (BB-39) burning after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor - NARA 195617 - Edit.jpg|thumb|The Japanese crippled American naval power with the [[attack on Pearl Harbor]], destroying many battleships.]]
[[File:Into the Jaws of Death 23-0455M edit.jpg|thumb|''[[Into the Jaws of Death]]'': The [[Normandy landings]] began the Allied march toward Germany from the west.]]
[[File:Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima, larger - edit1.jpg|thumb|''[[Raising the Flag on Iwo Jima]]'': Photographed by [[Joe Rosenthal]], depicts six United States Marines raising a US flag atop [[Mount Suribachi]] on February 23, 1945.]]
In the Depression years, the United States remained focused on domestic concerns while democracy declined across the world and many countries fell under the control of dictators. [[Empire of Japan|Imperial Japan]] asserted dominance in East Asia and in the Pacific. [[Nazi Germany]] and [[Kingdom of Italy#Fascist regime (1922–1943)|Fascist Italy]] militarized and threatened conquests, while Britain and France attempted [[appeasement]] to avert another war in Europe. U.S. legislation in the [[Neutrality Acts of the 1930s|Neutrality Acts]] sought to avoid foreign conflicts; however, policy clashed with increasing anti-Nazi feelings following the German [[invasion of Poland]] in September 1939 that started [[World War II]].<ref name=":13">{{Cite book |last=Black |first=Conrad |title=Roosevelt: Champion of Freedom |url=https://archive.org/details/franklindelanoro00blac |date=2003 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/franklindelanoro00blac/page/648 648]–682 |publisher=Public Affairs |isbn=9781586481841 |author-link=Conrad Black}}</ref>

At first, Roosevelt positioned the U.S. as the "[[Arsenal of Democracy]]," pledging full-scale financial and munitions support for the Allies and [[Lend-Lease]] agreements – but no military personnel.<ref name=":13" /> Japan tried to neutralize America's power in the Pacific by [[attack on Pearl Harbor|attacking Pearl Harbor]] in 1941, but instead it catalyzed American support to enter the war.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Prange |first1=Gordon W. |title=At Dawn We Slept: The Untold Story of Pearl Harbor |url=https://archive.org/details/atdawnwesleptun00pran |last2=Goldstein |first2=Donald M. |last3=Dillon |first3=Katherine V. |date=1982|isbn=9780070506695 }}</ref>

[[File:Roosevelt Pearl Harbor.ogg|thumb|left |alt=Infamy speech|President Roosevelt's [[Infamy Speech]] in aftermath of [[Attack on Pearl Harbor|Pearl Harbor Attack]]. Congress consequently declared war on the [[Empire of Japan]].]]

The main contributions of the U.S. to the Allied war effort comprised money, industrial output, food, petroleum, technological innovation, and (especially 1944–1945), military personnel. Much of the focus the U.S. government was in maximizing the national economic output, causing a dramatic increase in GDP, the export of vast quantities of supplies to the Allies and to American forces overseas, the end of unemployment, and a rise in civilian consumption even as 40% of the GDP went to the war effort.{{Sfn|Kennedy, Freedom from Fear}}

Tens of millions of workers moved from low-productivity occupations to high-efficiency jobs, improving productivity through better technology and management. Students, retired people, housewives, and the unemployed moved into the active labor force. Economic mobilization was managed by the [[War Production Board]] and a wartime production boom led to full employment, wiping out this vestige of the Great Depression. [[Shortage|Labor shortages]] encouraged industry to look for new sources of workers, finding new roles for women and Blacks.{{Sfn|Kennedy, Freedom from Fear}}

Most durable goods became unavailable, and meat, clothing, and gasoline were tightly rationed. In industrial areas housing was in short supply as people doubled up and lived in cramped quarters. Prices and wages were controlled, and Americans saved a high portion of their incomes, which led to renewed growth after the war instead of a return to depression.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Vatter |first=Harold G. |title=The U.S. Economy in World War II |date=1988 |pages=27–31}}</ref>{{Sfn|Kennedy, Freedom from Fear|pages=615–668}} Americans [[United States home front during World War II|on the home front]] tolerated the extra work because of patriotism, increased pay, and the confidence that it was only "for the duration," and life would return to normal as soon as the war was won.

The [[Allies of World War II|Allies]] – the United States, Britain, and the Soviet Union and other countries – saw Germany as the main threat and gave the highest priority to Europe. The U.S. dominated the war against Japan and stopped Japanese expansion in the Pacific in 1942. After the attack at Pearl Harbor and the loss of the [[Japanese occupation of the Philippines|Philippines to Japanese]] conquests, as well as a draw in the [[Battle of the Coral Sea]] (May 1942), the American Navy then inflicted a decisive blow at [[Battle of Midway|Midway]] (June 1942). American ground forces assisted in the [[North African campaign]] that eventually concluded with the collapse of Mussolini's fascist government in 1943, as Italy switched to the Allied side. A more significant European front was opened on [[Normandy landings|D-Day]], June 6, 1944, in which American and Allied forces invaded Nazi-occupied France from Britain.

War fervor also inspired [[Anti-Japanese sentiment in the United States|anti-Japanese sentiment]], leading to [[internment of Japanese Americans]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Daniels |first=Roger |title=Prisoners Without Trial: Japanese Americans in World War II |date=2004}}</ref> Roosevelt's [[Executive Order 9066]] resulted in over 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent being removed from their homes and placed in internment camps. Two-thirds of those interned were American citizens and half of them were children.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/sites/default/files/Short%20History%20of%20Amache%20Japanese%20Internment%20Camp_0.pdf|title=Short History of Amache Japanese Internment Camp}}</ref>{{Sfn|Ogawa and Fox|page=135}}<ref name="Richey2007">{{Cite news |last=Richey |first=Warren |date=December 5, 2007 |title=Key Guantánamo cases hit Supreme Court |work=[[The Christian Science Monitor]] |url=http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1205/p01s02-usju.html?page=2 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180627034530/https://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1205/p01s02-usju.html?page=2 |archive-date=June 27, 2018}}</ref>

[[File:Trinity Detonation T&B.jpg|thumb|The [[Trinity (nuclear test)|Trinity test]] of the [[Manhattan Project]] was the first detonation of a [[nuclear weapon]].]]

Military [[research and development]] also increase, leading to the [[Manhattan Project]], a secret effort to harness [[nuclear fission]] to produce [[Nuclear weapon|atomic bombs]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rhodes |first=Richard |title=The Making of the Atomic Bomb |date=1995}}</ref> The first nuclear device ever detonated was [[Trinity (nuclear test)|conducted]] July 16, 1945.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ralph Smith's eyewitness account of the Trinity trip to watch blast |url=http://www.wsmr.army.mil/PAO/Trinity/Pages/RalphSmithseyewitnessaccountoftheTrinitytriptowatchblast.aspx |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140904084107/http://www.wsmr.army.mil/PAO/Trinity/Pages/RalphSmithseyewitnessaccountoftheTrinitytriptowatchblast.aspx |archive-date=September 4, 2014 |access-date=August 24, 2014 |publisher=White Sands Missile Range, Public Affairs Office}}</ref>

The Allies pushed the Germans out of France but the western front stopped short, leaving Berlin to the Soviets as the Nazi regime formally capitulated in May 1945, ending the war in Europe.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ambrose |first=Stephen |title=Eisenhower and Berlin, 1945: The Decision to Halt at the Elbe |date=2000 |author-link=Stephen E. Ambrose}}</ref> In the Pacific, the U.S. implemented an [[leapfrogging (strategy)|island hopping strategy]] toward Tokyo. The Philippines was eventually reconquered, after Japan and the United States fought in history's largest naval battle, "[[Battle of Leyte Gulf|The Battle of Leyte Gulf]]".<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Largest Naval Battles in Military History: A Closer Look at the Largest and Most Influential Naval Battles in World History |url=http://militaryhistory.norwich.edu/largest-naval-sea-battles-in-military-history |access-date=March 7, 2015 |website=Military History |publisher=Norwich University}}</ref> However, the war wiped out all the development the United States invested in the Philippines as cities and towns were completely destroyed.<ref name="TimeMag1945">{{Cite magazine |date=April 16, 1945 |title=War Scars |magazine=Time |url=http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,775542,00.html |access-date=March 17, 2016}}</ref> After the devastation of the war, the United States granted its colony, the Philippines, independence.<ref name="Gov.Ph">{{Citation
|url=https://www.officialgazette.gov.ph/republic-day/
|title=Philippine Republic Day
|publisher=[[Official Gazette (Philippines)]]
|accessdate=July 5, 2012}}</ref>

The United States then established airfields for bombing runs against mainland Japan from the [[Mariana Islands]], achieving hard-fought victories at [[Battle of Iwo Jima|Iwo Jima]] and [[Battle of Okinawa|Okinawa]] in 1945.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Spector |first=Ronald H. |title=Eagle Against the Sun |url=https://archive.org/details/eagleagainstsuna0000spec |date=1985 |chapter=12–18 |isbn=9780394741017 |author-link=Ronald H. Spector}}</ref> Bloodied at Okinawa, the U.S. prepared to [[Operation Downfall|invade Japan's home islands]] when [[Boeing B-29 Superfortress|B-29s]] [[atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki|dropped atomic bombs]] on the Japanese cities of [[Hiroshima]] and [[Nagasaki]], compelling Japan to surrender and ending World War II.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Giangreco |first=D. M. |title=Hell to Pay: Operation DOWNFALL and the Invasion of Japan, 1945–1947 |date=2009}}</ref> The U.S. occupied Japan (and part of Germany), and restructured Japan along American lines.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Finn |first=Richard B. |title=Winners in Peace: MacArthur, Yoshida, and Postwar Japan |url=https://archive.org/details/winnerspeacemaca00finn |date=1992 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/winnerspeacemaca00finn/page/n64 43]–103|isbn=9780520069091 }}</ref>

During the war, Roosevelt coined the term "[[Four Policemen|Four Powers]]" to refer four major Allies of World War II, the United States, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and China, which later became the foundation of the United Nations Security Council.{{Sfn|Gaddis, Origins of the Cold War}} Though more than 400,000 military personnel and civilians were lost,<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Leland |first1=Anne |last2=Oboroceanu |first2=Mari–Jana |date=February 26, 2010 |title=American War and Military Operations Casualties: Lists and Statistics |url=https://fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL32492.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181209111557/https://fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL32492.pdf |archive-date=December 9, 2018 |access-date=February 18, 2011 |publisher=Congressional Research Service |page=2}}</ref> the U.S. mostly prospered untouched by the physical devastation of war that inflicted a heavy toll on Europe and East Asia.

Participation in postwar foreign affairs marked the end of predominant American isolationism. The threat of nuclear weapons inspired both [[nuclear power debate|optimism]] and [[mutual assured destruction|fear]]. Nuclear weapons have not been used since the war ended, and a "long peace" began between the global powers in era of competition that came to be known as the [[Cold War]]. The [[Truman Doctrine]] characterized this reality on May 22, 1947. Despite the absence of a global war during this period, there were, however, regional wars in [[Korean War|Korea]] and [[Vietnam War|Vietnam]].{{Sfn|Gaddis, Long Peace}}

== Contemporary America (1945–present) ==
{{Main|Cold War|History of the United States (1945–1964)|History of the United States (1964–1980)|History of the United States (1980–1991)}}

=== Postwar America (1945–1960) ===
{{Main|Cold War (1947–1953)|Cold War (1953–1962)|United States in the 1950s}}
[[File:IFP-135-F109-1M Kennedy Jingle Campaign Spot.webm|thumb|As TV became commonplace after 1948, presidential campaigns began to promote their causes with widespread coverage across the country. Here a commercial promoting [[John F. Kennedy]] from the [[1960 United States presidential election|1960 Election]] serves as an example. ]]
Following World War II, the United States emerged as one of the two dominant superpowers, the [[Soviet Union]] being the other. The [[United States Senate|U.S. Senate]] on a bipartisan vote approved U.S. participation in the United Nations (UN), which marked a turn away from the traditional [[isolationism]] of the U.S. and toward increased international involvement.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Getchell |first=Michelle |date=2017-10-26 |title=The United Nations and the United States |url=https://oxfordre.com/americanhistory/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.001.0001/acrefore-9780199329175-e-497 |access-date=2022-09-24 |website=Oxford Research Encyclopedia of American History |language=en |doi=10.1093/acrefore/9780199329175.013.497|isbn=978-0-19-932917-5 }}</ref>

[[File:Aerial Photograph of Intercontinental Range Ballistic Missile Launch Site Number One at Guanajay, Cuba - NARA - 193934.tif|thumb|[[Cuban Missile Crisis]], a reconnaissance photograph of Cuba, showing Soviet nuclear missiles, their transports and tents for fueling and maintenance]]

The primary American goal of 1945–1948 was to rescue Europe from the devastation of World War II and to contain the expansion of Communism, represented by the Soviet Union. [[Foreign policy of the United States|U.S. foreign policy]] during the Cold War was built around the support of Western Europe and Japan along with the policy of [[containment]], stopping the spread of [[communism]]. The U.S. joined the wars in [[Korean War|Korea]] and [[Vietnam War|Vietnam]] and [[United States involvement in regime change#1945–1991: Cold War|toppled left-wing governments in the third world]] to try to stop its spread.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Blakeley |first=Ruth |url=https://archive.org/details/stateterrorismne00blak |title=State Terrorism and Neoliberalism: The North in the South |date=2009 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=978-0415686174 |page=[https://archive.org/details/stateterrorismne00blak/page/n104 92] |url-access=limited}}</ref>

The [[Truman Doctrine]] of 1947 provided military and economic aid to Greece and Turkey to counteract the threat of Communist expansion in the Balkans. In 1948, the United States replaced piecemeal financial aid programs with a comprehensive [[Marshall Plan]], which pumped money into the economy of Western Europe, and removed trade barriers, while modernizing the managerial practices of businesses and governments.{{Sfn|Gaddis, Cold War}}

The Plan's $13&nbsp;billion budget was in the context of a U.S. GDP of $258&nbsp;billion in 1948 and was in addition to the $12&nbsp;billion in American aid given to Europe between the end of the war and the start of the Marshall Plan. Soviet head of state [[Joseph Stalin]] prevented [[Eastern Bloc|his satellite states]] from participating, and from that point on, Eastern Europe, with inefficient centralized economies, fell further and further behind Western Europe in terms of economic development and prosperity. In 1949, the United States, rejecting the long-standing policy of no military alliances in peacetime, formed the [[NATO|North Atlantic Treaty Organization]] (NATO) alliance, which continues into the 21st century. In response the Soviets formed the [[Warsaw Pact]] of communist states, leading to the "[[Iron Curtain]]".{{Sfn|Gaddis, Cold War}}

In August 1949 the Soviets tested their first nuclear weapon, thereby escalating the risk of warfare. The threat of [[Mutual assured destruction|mutually assured destruction]] however, prevented both powers from nuclear war, and resulted in proxy wars, especially in Korea and Vietnam, in which the two sides did not directly confront each other.{{Sfn|Gaddis, Long Peace}}

President Dwight D. Eisenhower, elected in a landslide as the first Republican president since 1932, had a lasting impact on American life and politics.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hitchcock |first=William I. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MImCDwAAQBAJ&pg=PP16 |title=The Age of Eisenhower: America and the World in the 1950s |date=2018 |publisher=Simon and Schuster |isbn=9781451698428 |pages=xvi–xix}}</ref> He ended the Korean War, and avoided any other major conflict. He cut military spending by reliance on very high technology, such as nuclear weapons carried by long-range bombers and intercontinental missiles. He gave strong support to the NATO alliance and built other alliances along similar lines, but they never were especially effective.<ref name=":14">{{Cite book |last=Hitchcock |first=William I. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MImCDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA109 |title=The Age of Eisenhower |date=2018 |isbn=9781451698428 |page=109}}</ref>

After [[Death and state funeral of Joseph Stalin|Stalin died in 1953]], Eisenhower worked to obtain friendlier relationships with the Soviet Union. At home, he ended [[McCarthyism]], expanded the Social Security program and presided over a decade of bipartisan comity. He promoted civil rights cautiously, and sent in the Army when [[Little Rock Nine|trouble threatened]] over racial integration in Little Rock, Arkansas.<ref name=":14" />

The unexpected leapfrogging of American technology by the Soviets in 1957 with [[Sputnik 1|Sputnik]], the first Earth satellite, began the [[Space Race]], won in 1969 by the Americans as [[Apollo 11]] landed astronauts on the Moon. The angst about the weaknesses of American education led to large-scale federal support for [[Science education#United States|science education]] and research.{{Sfn|Patterson, Grand Expectations}} In the decades after World War II, the United States became a global influence in economic, political, military, cultural, and technological affairs.
[[File:JFK_inaugural_address.ogg|right|John F Kennedy's inaugural address, 1961]]
In 1960, [[John F. Kennedy]] was [[1960 United States presidential election|elected President]] and his [[Presidency of John F. Kennedy|administration]] saw the acceleration of the country's role in the [[Space Race]], escalation of the American role in the [[Vietnam War]], the [[Bay of Pigs Invasion]], the [[Cuban Missile Crisis]], and the jailing of [[Martin Luther King Jr.]] during the [[Birmingham campaign]]. President Kennedy [[Assassination of John F. Kennedy|was assassinated]] on November 22, 1963, leaving the nation in profound shock.<ref>{{Cite book |last=O'Brien |first=Michael |title=John F. Kennedy: A Biography |date=2005}}</ref>

[[File:Vietnam. As the second phase of operation "Thayer," the 1st Air Cavalry Division (airmobile) is having... - NARA - 530612.tif|thumb|U.S. soldiers searching a village for potential [[Viet Cong]] during the [[Vietnam War]], 1966]]
[[File:Aldrin Apollo 11 original.jpg|thumb|[[Buzz Aldrin]] (shown) and [[Neil Armstrong]] became the first humans to walk on the Moon during [[NASA]]'s 1969 [[Apollo 11]] mission.]]
[[File:Pouso da Apollo 11 na Lua.ogg |alt=Moon Landing|thumb|Sound of [[Apollo 11]] and its [[Moon landing|landing on the Moon]]]]

=== Civil unrest and social reforms (1960–1980) ===
{{Main|Great Society|Modern liberalism in the United States}}
{{See also|Civil rights movement|Second-wave feminism}}
President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] secured congressional passage of his [[Great Society]] programs in the mid-1960s.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Alterman |first1=Eric |title=The Cause: The Fight for American Liberalism from Franklin Roosevelt to Barack Obama |url=https://archive.org/details/causefightforame00alte_0 |last2=Mattson |first2=Kevin |date=2012|publisher=Viking |isbn=9780670023431 }}</ref> They included civil rights, the end of legal [[racial segregation in the United States|segregation]], [[Medicare (United States)|Medicare]], extension of welfare, federal aid to education at all levels, subsidies for the arts and humanities, [[Environmental movement in the United States|environmental activism]], and a [[War on poverty|series of programs designed to wipe out poverty]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dallek |first=Robert |title=Lyndon B. Johnson: Portrait of a President |date=2004 |author-link=Robert Dallek}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Bernstein |first=Irving |title=Guns or Butter: The Presidency of Lyndon Johnson |date=1994}}</ref> As later historians explained:
{{Blockquote
|Gradually, liberal intellectuals crafted a new vision for achieving economic and social justice. The liberalism of the early 1960s contained no hint of radicalism, little disposition to revive new deal era crusades against concentrated economic power, and no intention to redistribute wealth or restructure existing institutions. Internationally it was strongly anti-Communist. It aimed to defend the free world, to encourage economic growth at home, and to ensure that the resulting plenty was fairly distributed. Their agenda-much influenced by Keynesian economic theory-envisioned massive public expenditure that would speed economic growth, thus providing the public resources to fund larger welfare, housing, health, and educational programs.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Harrell |first1=David Edwin Jr. |title=Unto a Good Land: A History of the American People |last2=Gaustad |first2=Edwin S. |last3=Boles |first3=John B. |last4=Griffith |first4=Randall M. |last5=Miller |last6=Woods |first6=Randall B. |date=2005 |pages=1052–1053 |author-link=David Edwin Harrell}}</ref>
}}

Johnson was rewarded with an [[1964 United States presidential election|electoral landslide in 1964]] against conservative [[Barry Goldwater]], which broke the decades-long control of Congress by the [[Conservative coalition]]. However, the Republicans bounced back in 1966 and elected [[Richard Nixon]] in 1968. Nixon largely continued the New Deal and Great Society programs he inherited; conservative reaction would come with the election of [[Ronald Reagan]] in 1980.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Schneider |first=Gregory |title=The Conservative Century: From Reaction to Revolution |url=https://archive.org/details/conservativecent0000schn |date=2009 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |chapter=5}}</ref> Meanwhile, the American people completed a great migration from farms into the cities and experienced a period of sustained economic expansion.

[[File:Martin Luther King, Jr. and Lyndon Johnson.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Civil Rights leader [[Martin Luther King Jr.]] (right) with President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] in the background (left)]]

Starting in the late 1950s, institutionalized [[racism in the United States|racism across the United States]], but especially in the [[Southern United States|South]], was increasingly challenged by the growing Civil Rights Movement. The activism of African-American leaders [[Rosa Parks]] and [[Martin Luther King Jr.]] led to the [[Montgomery bus boycott]], which launched the movement. For years African Americans would struggle with violence against them but would achieve great steps toward equality with Supreme Court decisions, including ''[[Brown v. Board of Education]]'' and ''[[Loving v. Virginia]]'', the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]], the [[Voting Rights Act of 1965]], and the [[Civil Rights Act of 1968|Fair Housing Act of 1968]], which ended the [[Jim Crow laws]] that legalized [[racial segregation]] between whites and blacks.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dierenfield |first=Bruce J. |title=The Civil Rights Movement |url=https://archive.org/details/civilrightsmovem0000dier |date=2004|isbn=9780582357372 }}</ref>

[[File:LBJ Civil Rights signing 1964 edited.ogg |alt=Civil Rights signing|thumb|President [[Presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson|Lyndon Johnson's]] speech on the [[Civil Rights Act of 1964]]]]
[[File:Cesar chavez2.jpg|right|thumb|Duncan West speaking with [[Cesar Chavez]]. The Delano [[United Farm Workers|UFW]] rally. Duncan represented the [[International Brotherhood of Teamsters|Teamsters]] who were supporting the UFW and condemning their IBT leadership for working as thugs against a fellow union.]]
Martin Luther King Jr., who had won the 1964 [[Nobel Peace Prize]] for his efforts to achieve equality of the races, was [[Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.|assassinated in 1968]]. Following his death others led the movement, most notably King's widow, [[Coretta Scott King]], who was also active, like her husband, in the [[Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War|Opposition to the Vietnam War]], and in the [[Feminism in the United States|Women's Liberation Movement]]. There were 164 riots in 128 American cities in the first nine months of 1967.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lupo |first=Lindsey |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pmeKBTPzj3gC&pg=PA123 |title=Flak-Catchers: One Hundred Years of Riot Commission Politics in America |date=2010 |publisher=Lexington Books |isbn=9780739138120 |pages=123–124 |access-date=June 27, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016105918/https://books.google.com/books?id=pmeKBTPzj3gC&pg=PA123 |archive-date=October 16, 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> Frustrations with the seemingly slow progress of the integration movement led to the emergence of more radical discourses during the early 1960s, which, in turn, gave rise to the [[Black Power]] movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Joseph |first=Peniel E. |date=2001 |title=Black Liberation without Apology: Reconceptualizing the Black Power Movement. |journal=The Black Scholar |volume=31 |issue=3–4 |pages=2–19 |doi=10.1080/00064246.2001.11431152 |s2cid=142923969}}</ref>

The decade would ultimately bring about positive strides toward integration, especially in government service, sports, and entertainment. Native Americans turned to the federal courts to fight for their land rights. They held protests highlighting the federal government's failure to honor treaties. One of the most outspoken Native American groups was the [[American Indian Movement]] (AIM). In the 1960s, [[Cesar Chavez]] began organizing poorly paid [[Mexican Americans|Mexican-American]] farm workers in California. He led a five-year-long strike by grape pickers. Then Chávez formed the country's first successful union of farm workers. His [[United Farm Workers|United Farm Workers of America]] (UFW) faltered after a few years but after Chavez died in 1993 he became an iconic "folk saint" in the pantheon of Mexican Americans.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jacobs |first=Elizabeth |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0nLwAihlibcC&pg=PA13 |title=Mexican American Literature: The Politics of Identity |date=2006 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=9781134218233 |page=13 |access-date=June 27, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150320203824/http://books.google.com/books?id=0nLwAihlibcC&pg=PA13 |archive-date=March 20, 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Vietnamdem.jpg|thumb|left|Anti-Vietnam War demonstration, 1967]]

A new consciousness of the inequality of American women began sweeping the nation, starting with the 1963 publication of [[Betty Friedan]]'s best-seller, ''[[The Feminine Mystique]]'', which explained how many [[Housewife|housewives]] felt trapped and unfulfilled, assaulted American culture for its creation of the notion that women could only find fulfillment through their roles as wives, mothers, and keepers of the home, and argued that women were just as able as men to do every type of job. In 1966 Friedan and others established the [[National Organization for Women]] (NOW) to act for women as the [[NAACP]] did for African Americans.{{Sfn|Glenda Riley}}{{Sfn|Zophy}}

[[File:Woodstock redmond hair.JPG|right|thumb|Two [[hippie]]s at [[Woodstock]], 1969]] 
Protests began, and the new [[women's liberation movement]] grew in size and power, gained much media attention, and, by 1968, had replaced the Civil Rights Movement as the U.S's main social revolution. Marches, parades, rallies, boycotts, and pickets brought out thousands, sometimes millions. There were striking gains for women in medicine, law, and business, while only a few were elected to office.<ref name=":15">{{Cite book |last=Critchlow |first=Donald T. |title=Phyllis Schlafly and Grassroots Conservatism: A Woman's Crusade |url=https://archive.org/details/phyllis_cri_2005_00_7649 |date=2005}}</ref><ref name=":16">{{Cite book |last=Mansbridge |first=Jane J. |title=Why We Lost the ERA |url=https://archive.org/details/whywelostera0000mans |date=1986|isbn=9780226503585 }}</ref>

The women's movement was split into factions by political ideology early on, with NOW on the left, the [[Women's Equity Action League]] (WEAL) on the right, the [[National Women's Political Caucus]] (NWPC) in the center, and more radical groups formed by younger women on the far-left. The proposed [[Equal Rights Amendment]] to the Constitution, passed by Congress in 1972 was defeated by a conservative coalition mobilized by [[Phyllis Schlafly]]. They argued that it degraded the position of the housewife and made young women susceptible to the [[conscription in the United States|military draft]].<ref name=":15" /><ref name=":16" />

However, many federal laws (i.e. those [[equal Pay Act of 1963|equalizing pay]], [[Civil Rights Act of 1964|employment]], [[Title IX|education]], [[Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972|employment opportunities]], and [[Equal Credit Opportunity Act|credit]]; [[Pregnancy Discrimination Act|ending pregnancy discrimination]]; and requiring [[NASA]], the Military Academies, and other organizations to admit women), state laws (i.e., those ending [[Domestic violence|spousal abuse]] and [[marital rape]]), Supreme Court rulings (i.e. ruling that the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment applied to women), and state ERAs established women's equal status under the law, and social custom and consciousness began to change, accepting women's equality. The controversial issue of abortion, deemed by the Supreme Court as a [[Fundamental rights|fundamental right]] in ''[[Roe v. Wade]]'' (1973), is still a [[abortion debate|point of debate]] today.[[File:F-4B VF-151 CV-41 TU-95.jpg|right|thumb|United States Navy [[McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II|F-4 Phantom II]] shadows a Soviet [[Tupolev Tu-95|Tu-95 Bear]] D aircraft in the early 1970s.]]

Amid the Cold War, the United States entered the [[Vietnam War]], whose growing unpopularity fed already existing social movements, including those among women, minorities, and young people. President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]]'s [[Great Society]] social programs and numerous rulings by the [[Warren Court]] added to the wide range of [[Reform movement|social reform]] during the 1960s and 1970s. [[Feminism]] and the [[environmental movement]] became political forces, and progress continued toward [[Civil and political rights|civil rights]] for all Americans. The [[counterculture of the 1960s|Counterculture Revolution]] swept through the nation and much of the western world in the late sixties and early seventies, further dividing Americans in a "culture war" but also bringing forth more liberated social views.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Chapman |first=Roger |title=Culture Wars: An Encyclopedia of Issues, Voices, and Viewpoints |date=2009}}</ref>

Johnson was succeeded in 1969 by Republican [[Richard Nixon]], who [[Vietnamization|attempted to gradually turn the war over to]] the [[South Vietnam]]ese forces. He negotiated the [[Paris Peace Accords|peace treaty in 1973]] which secured the release of POWs and led to the withdrawal of U.S. troops. The war had cost the lives of 58,000 American troops. Nixon manipulated the fierce distrust between the Soviet Union and China to the advantage of the United States, achieving ''[[détente]]'' with both parties.{{Sfn|John Greene}}

[[File:Nixon-depart.png|thumb|right|upright|[[Richard Nixon]] departing from the [[White House]], 1974]]
The [[Watergate scandal]], involving Nixon's cover-up of his operatives' break-in into the [[Democratic National Committee]] headquarters at the [[Watergate complex|Watergate office complex]] destroyed his political base, sent many aides to prison, and forced Nixon's resignation on August 9, 1974. He was succeeded by Vice President [[Gerald Ford]]. The [[Fall of Saigon]], on April 30, 1975, ended the Vietnam War and resulted in North and [[South Vietnam|South]] [[Vietnam]] being reunited. Communist victories in neighboring [[Cambodia]] and [[Laos]] occurred in the same year, with the fall of Cambodia's capital, [[Phnom Penh]] on April 17 and the taking of Laos's capital, [[Vientiane]] on December 2. {{Sfn|John Greene}}

The [[1973 oil crisis|OPEC oil embargo]] marked a long-term economic transition since, for the first time, energy prices skyrocketed, and American factories faced serious competition from foreign automobiles, clothing, electronics, and consumer goods. By the late 1970s, the economy suffered an [[1970s Energy Crisis|energy crisis]], slow economic growth, high unemployment, and very high inflation coupled with high-interest rates (the term [[stagflation]] was coined). Since economists agreed on the wisdom of [[deregulation]], many of the New Deal era regulations were ended, such as in transportation, banking, and telecommunications.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Derthick |first=Martha |title=The Politics of Deregulation |url=https://archive.org/details/politicsofderegu00dert |date=1985}}</ref>

[[Jimmy Carter]], running as someone who was not a part of the Washington political establishment, was elected president in 1976.<ref>{{Cite web |title=People & Events: The Election of 1976 |url=https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carter/peopleevents/e_1976.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090519045846/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/carter/peopleevents/e_1976.html |archive-date=May 19, 2009 |access-date=January 31, 2010 |website=American Experience |publisher=PBS}}</ref> On the world stage, Carter brokered the [[Camp David Accords]] between Israel and Egypt. In 1979, Iranian students stormed the U.S. embassy in [[Tehran]] and took 66 Americans hostage, resulting in the [[Iran hostage crisis]]. With the hostage crisis and continuing stagflation, Carter lost the [[1980 United States presidential election|1980 election]] to the Republican [[Ronald Reagan]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Urofsky |first=Melvin I. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DBa6WQ5XCowC&pg=PA545 |title=The American Presidents |date=2000 |publisher=Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-0-8153-2184-2 |page=545 |access-date=June 27, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016105918/https://books.google.com/books?id=DBa6WQ5XCowC&pg=PA545 |archive-date=October 16, 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> On January 20, 1981, minutes after Carter's term in office ended, the remaining U.S. captives held at the U.S. embassy in Iran were released, ending the 444-day hostage crisis.<ref>{{Cite web |title=January 20, 1981: Iran Hostage Crisis ends |url=http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/1/20 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100307171102/http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/1/20 |archive-date=March 7, 2010 |access-date=June 8, 2010 |website=This Day in History |publisher=History.com}}</ref>

=== End of the century (1980–2000) ===
{{Main|Reagan Era|Republican Revolution|Cold War (1979–1985)|Cold War (1985–1991)}}
[[File:President Ronald Reagan making his Berlin Wall speech.jpg|thumb|[[Ronald Reagan]] at the [[Brandenburg Gate]] challenges [[General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Soviet general secretary]] [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] to [[Tear down this wall!|tear down]] the [[Berlin Wall]] in 1987, shortly before the end of the [[Cold War]].]]
[[File:Reagan Brandenburg Gate speech.ogg |alt=Brandenburg Gate speech|thumb|[[Ronald Reagan|President Reagan's]] Brandenburg Gate speech, famous for the phrase '[[Tear down this wall!|Tear down this wall]]']]

[[Ronald Reagan]] produced a major [[political realignment]] with his [[1980 United States presidential election|1980]] and [[1984 United States presidential election|1984]] landslide elections. Reagan's economic policies (dubbed "[[Reaganomics]]") and the implementation of the [[Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981]] lowered the top marginal tax rate from 70% to 28% over the course of seven years.<ref>{{Cite web |date=July 10, 2007 |title=Effective Federal Tax Rates: 1979–2001 |url=http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdoc.cfm?index=5324&type=0&sequence=0 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20070509233656/http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdoc.cfm?index=5324&type=0&sequence=0 |archive-date=May 9, 2007 |access-date=April 2, 2012 |publisher=Bureau of Economic Analysis}}</ref> Reagan continued to downsize government taxation and regulation.{{Sfn|Wilentz|pages=140–141}} The U.S. experienced a recession in 1982, but the negative indicators reversed, with the inflation rate decreasing from 11% to 2%, the unemployment rate decreasing from 10.8% in December 1982 to 7.5% in November 1984,<ref>{{Cite web |date=November 8, 2008 |title=The United States Unemployment Rate |url=http://www.miseryindex.us/urbymonth.asp |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080920034354/http://www.miseryindex.us/urbymonth.asp |archive-date=September 20, 2008 |access-date=January 31, 2010 |publisher=Miseryindex.us}}</ref> and the economic growth rate increasing from 4.5% to 7.2%.{{Sfn|Wilentz|pages=170}}

Reagan ordered a buildup of the U.S. military, incurring additional budget deficits. Reagan introduced a complicated missile defense system known as the [[Strategic Defense Initiative]] (SDI) (dubbed "Star Wars" by opponents) in which, theoretically, the U.S. could shoot down missiles with laser systems in space. The Soviets reacted harshly because they thought it violated the 1972 [[Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty]] and would upset the balance of power by giving the U.S. a major military advantage. For years [[General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Soviet general secretary]] [[Mikhail Gorbachev]] argued vehemently against SDI. However, by the late 1980s he decided the system would never work and should not be used to block disarmament deals with the U.S.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Zelizer |first=Julian E. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r_gH5s4B2SEC&pg=PA350 |title=Arsenal of Democracy: The Politics of National Security—From World War II to the War on Terrorism |date=2010 |publisher=Basic Books |isbn=9780465015078 |pages=350 |author-link=Julian Zelizer |access-date=June 27, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016105918/https://books.google.com/books?id=r_gH5s4B2SEC&pg=PA350 |archive-date=October 16, 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Historians argue how great an impact the SDI threat had on the Soviets – whether it was enough to force Gorbachev to initiate radical reforms, or whether the deterioration of the Soviet economy alone forced the reforms. There is agreement that the Soviets realized they were well behind the Americans in military technology, that to try to catch up would be very expensive, and that the military expenses were already a very heavy burden slowing down their economy.{{Sfn|van Dijk}}

The 1983 [[United States invasion of Grenada|Invasion of Grenada]] and 1986 [[1986 United States bombing of Libya|bombing of Libya]] were popular in the U.S., though his backing of the [[Contras]] rebels was mired in the controversy over the [[Iran–Contra affair]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Ehrman |first1=John |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CNtNj1oJnXEC |title=Debating the Reagan Presidency |last2=Flamm |first2=Michael W. |date=2009 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |isbn=9780742570573 |pages=101–182 |access-date=June 27, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016105918/https://books.google.com/books?id=CNtNj1oJnXEC |archive-date=October 16, 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Reagan met four times with Soviet leader [[Mikhail Gorbachev]], who ascended to power as [[General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|General Secretary of the Communist Party]] in 1985, and their summit conferences led to the signing of the [[Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty]]. Gorbachev tried to save Communism in the Soviet Union first by ending the expensive [[nuclear arms race]] with America,{{Sfn|Wilentz|pages=243–244}} then by shedding the East European empire in 1989. The [[Dissolution of the Soviet Union|Soviet Union collapsed]] on Christmas Day 1991, ending the U.S–Soviet Cold War.

[[File:Reagan and Gorbachev signing.jpg|thumb|right|[[Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty]] on December 8, 1987]]

For the remainder of the [[20th century]], the United States emerged as the world's sole remaining superpower and continued to intervene in international affairs during the 1990s, including the 1991 [[Gulf War]] against [[Iraq]]. Following [[1992 United States presidential election|his election in 1992]], President [[Bill Clinton]] oversaw one of the longest periods of economic expansion and unprecedented gains in securities values. President Clinton worked with the Republican Congress to pass the first balanced federal budget in 30 years.{{Sfn|Wilentz|pages=400}}Much of the economic boom was a side effect of the [[Digital Revolution]] and new business opportunities created by the internet privatized in 1993. Prior to this time [[ARPANET|ARPNET]] a Department of Defense Project had developed the internet for governmental, and research purposes.<ref>{{Cite book |last=H. |first=Salus, Peter |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/31754973 |title=Casting the net : from ARPANET to Internet and beyond |date=1995 |publisher=Addison-Wesley Pub. Co |isbn=0-201-87674-4 |oclc=31754973}}</ref>

In 1998, [[impeachment of Bill Clinton|Clinton was impeached]] by the House of Representatives on charges of lying under oath about (perjury regarding) a sexual relationship with White House intern [[Monica Lewinsky]]. He was acquitted by the Senate. The failure of impeachment and the Democratic gains in the 1998 election forced House Speaker [[Newt Gingrich]], a Republican, to resign from Congress.{{Sfn|Wilentz|pages=400}}

[[File:Bill Clinton, Yitzhak Rabin, Yasser Arafat at the White House 1993-09-13.jpg|right|thumb|Clinton, [[Yitzhak Rabin]] and [[Yasser Arafat]] during the [[Oslo Accords]] on September 13, 1993]]
The Republican Party expanded its base throughout the South after 1968 (except 1976), largely due to its strength among [[Social conservatism|socially conservative]] white [[Evangelicalism in the United States|Evangelical Protestants]] and [[Traditionalist Catholicism|traditionalist Roman Catholics]], added to its traditional strength in the business community and suburbs. As white Democrats in the South lost dominance of the Democratic Party in the 1990s, the region took on the [[Two-party system|two-party]] apparatus which characterized most states. The Republican Party's central leader by 1980 was [[Ronald Reagan]], whose [[Conservatism in the United States|conservative]] policies called for reduced government spending and regulation, lower taxes, and a strong anti-Soviet foreign policy.<ref name=":17">{{Cite book |last1=Caplow |first1=Theodore |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gwBvm8aF2bsC&pg=PA337 |title=Recent Social Trends in the United States, 1960–1990 |last2=Bahr |first2=Howard M. |last3=Chadwick |first3=Bruce A. |last4=John Modell |date=1994 |publisher=McGill-Queen's Press |isbn=9780773512122 |page=337 |access-date=October 27, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160102091400/https://books.google.com/books?id=gwBvm8aF2bsC&pg=PA337 |archive-date=January 2, 2016 |url-status=live}}</ref>

His iconic status in the party persists into the 21st century, as practically all Republican Party leaders acknowledge his stature. Social scientists Theodore Caplow et al. argue, "The Republican party, nationally, moved from right-center toward the center in the 1940s and 1950s, then moved right again in the 1970s and 1980s." They add: "The Democratic party, nationally, moved from left-center toward the center in the 1940s and 1950s, then moved further toward the right-center in the 1970s and 1980s."<ref name=":17" />

=== New millennium (2000–2016) ===
{{Main|History of the United States (1991–2008)|History of the United States (2008–present)}}{{Seealso|Presidency of George W. Bush|Presidency of Barack Obama}}{{Further|September 11 attacks|War on terror|Great Recession in the United States}}

The close [[2000 United States presidential election|presidential election in 2000]] between Governor [[George W. Bush]] and [[Al Gore]] helped lay the seeds for political polarization to come. The vote in the decisive states of [[2000 United States presidential election in New Mexico|New Mexico]] and [[2000 United States presidential election in Florida|Florida]] was extremely close and produced a dramatic [[2000 United States presidential election recount in Florida|dispute over the counting of votes]].{{Sfn|Wilentz|pages=420–427}} Including 2000, the Democrats outpolled the Republicans in the national vote in every election from 1992 to 2020, except for 2004.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Election and voting information |url=https://www.fec.gov/introduction-campaign-finance/election-and-voting-information/ |access-date=2022-09-24 |website=FEC.gov |language=en}}</ref>

[[File:Nasdaq Composite dot-com bubble.svg|thumb|left|The [[Nasdaq Composite]] index swelled with the [[dot-com bubble]] in the optimistic "[[New economy]]". The bubble burst in 2000.]]
On September 11, 2001 ("9/11"), the United States was struck by a [[terrorism|terrorist attack]] when 19 [[al-Qaeda]] hijackers commandeered four airliners to be used in [[suicide attack]]s and intentionally crashed two into both twin towers of the [[World Trade Center (1973–2001)|World Trade Center]] and the third into [[the Pentagon]], killing 2,937 victims—206 aboard the three airliners, 2,606 who were in the World Trade Center and on the ground, and 125 who were in the Pentagon.<ref>{{Cite book |last=National Commission on Terrorist Attacks |title=The 9/11 Commission Report |date=2004}}</ref> The [[United Airlines Flight 93|fourth plane]] was re-taken by the passengers and crew of the aircraft. While they were not able to land the plane safely, they were able to re-take control of the aircraft and crash it into an empty field in Pennsylvania, killing all 44 people including the four terrorists on board, thereby saving whatever target the terrorists were aiming for. Within two hours, both Twin Towers of the World Trade Center completely collapsed causing massive damage to the surrounding area and blanketing [[Lower Manhattan]] in toxic dust clouds. All in all, a total of 2,977 victims perished in the attacks. In response, President George W. Bush on September 20 announced a "war on terror". On October 7, 2001, the United States and [[NATO]] then [[War in Afghanistan (2001–2012)|invaded Afghanistan]] to oust the [[Taliban]] regime, which had provided safe haven to al-Qaeda and its leader [[Osama bin Laden]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sanger |first=David E. |title=Confront and Conceal: Obama's Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American Power |url=https://archive.org/details/confrontconcealo00sang |date=2012 |chapter=1–5 |publisher=Crown Publishers |isbn=9780307718020 |author-link=David E. Sanger}}</ref>

[[File:WTC smoking on 9-11.jpeg|thumb|The former [[World Trade Center (1973–2001)|World Trade Center]] in [[Lower Manhattan]] during [[September 11 attacks]] in 2001]]
[[File:George W. Bush's Oval Office Address of September 11, 2001.oga|alt=9/11 Address|thumb|[[George W. Bush|President Bush's]] address in reaction to the [[September 11 attacks|9/11 attacks]]]]

The federal government established new domestic efforts to prevent future attacks. The [[Patriot Act|USA PATRIOT Act]] increased the power of government to monitor communications and removed legal restrictions on information sharing between federal law enforcement and intelligence services. The [[United States Department of Homeland Security|U.S. Department of Homeland Security]] was created to lead and coordinate federal [[counter-terrorism]] activities.<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Presidency of George W. Bush: A First Historical Assessment |date=2010 |editor-last=Zelizer |editor-first=Julian E. |editor-link=Julian Zelizer |pages=59–87}}</ref> Since 2002, the U.S. government's [[indefinite detention]] of terrorism suspects captured abroad at the [[Guantanamo Bay detention camp]], a prison at [[Guantanamo Bay Naval Base|the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba]], led to allegations of [[Human rights|human rights abuses]] and violations of international law.<ref>{{Cite web |date=June 18, 2008 |title=Report Details Alleged Abuse of Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib Detainees |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/military-jan-june08-detainees_06-18 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006082219/http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/military-jan-june08-detainees_06-18 |archive-date=October 6, 2014 |access-date=October 1, 2014 |website=PBS NewsHour}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=What We Do: Guantanamo |url=https://ccrjustice.org/home/what-we-do/issues/guantanamo |access-date=May 28, 2020 |publisher=Center for Constitutional Rights |quote=Since the prison opened in 2002, CCR has been at the forefront of the legal battle against indefinite detention and torture at Guantánamo, representing many current and former detainees.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=January 24, 2011 |title=US: Prolonged Indefinite Detention Violates International Law: Current Detention Practices at Guantanamo Unjustified and Arbitrary |url=https://www.hrw.org/news/2011/01/24/us-prolonged-indefinite-detention-violates-international-law |publisher=Human Rights Watch}}</ref>

[[File:Bush 2002 UNGA.jpg|thumb|left|[[George W. Bush]] addressed the [[United Nations General Assembly|General Assembly of the United Nations]] on September 12, 2002, to outline the complaints of the United States government against the Iraqi government.]]
In 2003, from March 19 to May 1, the United States launched [[2003 invasion of Iraq|an invasion of Iraq]], which led to the collapse of the [[Iraq]] government and the eventual capture of Iraqi dictator [[Saddam Hussein]], with whom the U.S. had long-standing tense relations. The reasons for the invasion cited by the Bush administration included the spreading of democracy, the elimination of [[Weapon of mass destruction|weapons of mass destruction]]<ref>{{Cite book |title=The Presidency of George W. Bush: A First Historical Assessment |date=2010 |editor-last=Zelizer |editor-first=Julian |editor-link=Julian Zelizer |pages=88–113}}</ref> (a key demand of the UN as well, though later investigations found parts of the intelligence reports to be inaccurate),<ref>{{Cite news |date=April 25, 2005 |title=CIA's final report: No WMD found in Iraq |publisher=NBC News |agency=Associated Press |url=http://www.nbcnews.com/id/7634313 |url-status=live |access-date=April 22, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130305122359/http://www.nbcnews.com/id/7634313 |archive-date=March 5, 2013}}</ref> and the liberation of the Iraqi people. Despite some initial successes early in the invasion, the continued [[Iraq War]] fueled [[protests against the Iraq War|international protests]] and gradually saw [[Public opinion in the United States on the invasion of Iraq|domestic support decline]] as many people began to question whether or not the invasion was worth the cost.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Clifton |first=Eli |date=November 7, 2011 |title=Poll: 62 Percent Say Iraq War Wasn't Worth Fighting |url=http://thinkprogress.org/security/2011/11/07/362734/poll-62-percent-say-iraq-war-wasnt-worth-fighting |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160305110015/http://thinkprogress.org/security/2011/11/07/362734/poll-62-percent-say-iraq-war-wasnt-worth-fighting |archive-date=March 5, 2016 |access-date=February 24, 2012 |website=ThinkProgress}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last1=Milbank |first1=Dana |last2=Deane |first2=Claudia |date=June 8, 2005 |title=Poll Finds Dimmer View of Iraq War |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/07/AR2005060700296.html |url-status=live |access-date=October 10, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110221202536/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/07/AR2005060700296.html |archive-date=February 21, 2011}}</ref> In 2007, after years of violence by the [[Iraqi insurgency (2003–2011)|Iraqi insurgency]], President Bush deployed more troops in a strategy dubbed "[[Iraq War troop surge of 2007|the surge]]". While the death toll decreased, the political stability of Iraq remained in doubt.{{Sfn|Wilentz|pages=453}}
[[File:US military bases in the world-1.svg|thumb|300px|U.S. military presence in the world in 2007]]

In 2008, the unpopularity of President Bush and the Iraq war, along with the [[Financial crisis of 2007–2008|2008 financial crisis]], led to the election of [[Barack Obama]], the first [[Multiracial American|multiracial]]<ref>{{cite news |author=<!-- Staff writer(s); no by-line. --> |date=November 12, 2008 |title=Barack Obama: Face Of New Multiracial Movement? |url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96916824 |newspaper=NPR |access-date=October 4, 2014}}</ref> president, with African-American or Kenyan ancestry.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Crotty |first=William |date=2009 |title=Policy and Politics: The Bush Administration and the 2008 Presidential Election |journal=Polity |volume=41 |issue=3 |pages=282–311 |doi=10.1057/pol.2009.3 |s2cid=154471046}}</ref> After his election, Obama reluctantly continued the war effort in Iraq until August 31, 2010, when he declared that combat operations had ended. However, 50,000 American soldiers and military personnel were kept in Iraq to assist Iraqi forces, help protect withdrawing forces, and work on counter-terrorism until December 15, 2011, when the war was declared formally over and the last troops [[Withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq (2007–2011)|left the country]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=December 18, 2011 |title='The war is over': Last US soldiers leave Iraq |publisher=NBC News |url=http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2011/12/18/9528197-the-war-is-over-last-us-soldiers-leave-iraq?lite |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160301044717/http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2011/12/18/9528197-the-war-is-over-last-us-soldiers-leave-iraq?lite |archive-date=March 1, 2016}}</ref> At the same time, Obama increased American involvement in Afghanistan, starting a surge strategy using an additional 30,000 troops, while proposing to begin [[Withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan (2011–2016)|withdrawing troops]] sometime in December 2014. In 2009, on his second day in office, Obama issued an [[Executive Order 13491|executive order banning the use of torture]],<ref>{{Cite news |last=Baker |first=Peter |date=December 11, 2014 |title=Obama Catches Blame on Tactics of Torture That He Ended |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/11/us/politics/obama-effectiveness-cia-torture.html}}</ref><ref name="Barela">{{Cite journal |last=Barela |first=Steven J. |date=February 12, 2016 |title=The New US Anti-Torture Law: A Genuine Step Forward |url=https://www.justsecurity.org/29273/anti-torture-law-genuine-step |journal=Just Security}}</ref> a prohibition codified into law in 2016.<ref name="Barela" /> Obama also ordered the closure of secret CIA-run prisons overseas ("[[black site]]s").<ref>{{Cite news |last=Shane |first=Scott |date=January 22, 2009 |title=Obama Orders Secret Prisons and Detention Camps Closed |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/11/us/politics/obama-effectiveness-cia-torture.html}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Savage |first=Charlie |date=January 25, 2017 |title=Trump Poised to Lift Ban on C.I.A. 'Black Site' Prisons |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/25/us/politics/cia-detainee-prisons.html}}</ref> Obama [[Executive Order 13492|sought to close]] the Guantanamo Bay detention camp "as soon as practicable" and over his tenure the population of the detention camp declined from 242 inmates to 45 inmates; the [[Guantanamo Review Task Force]] cleared many prisoners for release and resettlement abroad.<ref name="Rath">{{Cite news |first=Arun |last=Rath | url=https://www.npr.org/2017/01/19/510448989/trump-inherits-guantanamos-remaining-detainees |title=Trump Inherits Guantanamo's Remaining Detainees | publisher=Morning Edition | date=January 19, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=January 14, 2017 |title=Why Obama failed to close Guantanamo |url=https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/obama-failed-close-guantanamo |website=NewsHour |publisher=PBS}}</ref> Obama's efforts to close the prison entirely were stymied by Congress, which in 2011 enacted a measure blocking Obama from transferring any Guantanamo detainees to U.S. facilities.<ref name="Rath" />

In May 2011, after nearly a decade in hiding, the founder and leader of Al Qaeda, [[Osama bin Laden]], [[Killing of Osama bin Laden|was killed]] in Pakistan in a raid conducted by U.S. naval special forces acting under President Obama's direct orders. While Al Qaeda was near collapse in Afghanistan, affiliated organizations continued to operate in [[Yemen]] and other remote areas as the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] used [[Unmanned combat aerial vehicle|drones]] to hunt down and remove its leadership.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Baker |first1=Peter |last2=Cooper |first2=Helene |last3=Mazzetti |first3=Mark |date=May 1, 2011 |title=Bin Laden Is Dead, Obama Says |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/02/world/asia/osama-bin-laden-is-killed.html |url-status=live |access-date=February 27, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110505195308/http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/02/world/asia/osama-bin-laden-is-killed.html |archive-date=May 5, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Bergen |first=Peter L. |title=Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden—from 9/11 to Abbottabad |date=2012 |pages=250–261}}</ref>

The [[Boston Marathon bombing]] was a bombing incident, followed by subsequent related shootings, that occurred when two pressure cooker bombs exploded during the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013. The bombs exploded near the marathon's finish line, killing 3 people and injuring an estimated 264 others.

The [[Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant]] rose to prominence in September 2014. In addition to taking control of much of Western Iraq and Eastern Syria, ISIS also beheaded three journalists, two American and one British. These events lead to [[International military intervention against ISIL|a major military offensive]] by the United States and its allies in the region.

On December 28, 2014, Obama officially ended the combat mission in Afghanistan and promised a withdrawal of all remaining U.S. troops at the end of 2016 with the exception of the embassy guards.<ref>{{Cite web |date=December 29, 2014 |title=Statement by the President on the End of the Combat Mission in Afghanistan |url=https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2014/12/28/statement-president-end-combat-mission-afghanistan |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170121015947/https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2014/12/28/statement-president-end-combat-mission-afghanistan |archive-date=January 21, 2017 |access-date=January 18, 2015 |website=[[whitehouse.gov]] |via=[[NARA|National Archives]]}}</ref> The US military mission formally ended on August 30, 2021.<ref name=":2">{{Cite news|date=August 30, 2021|title=The U.S. military finishes its evacuation, and an era ends in Afghanistan.|language=en|work=AP NEWS|url=https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/08/30/world/afghanistan-news/us-military-evacuation-kabul-afghanistan|access-date=2021-08-30}}</ref>

[[File:Barack Obama inauguration speech 2009.ogg|thumb|Barack Obama inauguration speech 2009]]
[[File:TeaPartyByFreedomFan.JPG|thumb|left|Tea Party protesters walk towards the [[United States Capitol]] during the Taxpayer March on Washington, September 12, 2009.]]

In September 2008, the United States and most of Europe entered the longest post–World War II [[recession]], often called the "Great Recession".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Payne |first=Thomas |title=The Time of Shedding and Cold Rocks: What Happened |date=2012}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Rosenberg, Jerry M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8YSYIHuSX2oC |title=The Concise Encyclopedia of The Great Recession 2007–2012 |date=2012 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=9780810883406 |edition=2nd |access-date=June 27, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150320012939/http://books.google.com/books?id=8YSYIHuSX2oC |archive-date=March 20, 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> Multiple overlapping crises were involved, especially the [[United States housing market correction|housing market crisis]], a [[subprime mortgage crisis]], [[2000s energy crisis|soaring oil prices]], an [[effects of the 2008–2010 automotive industry crisis on the United States|automotive industry crisis]], rising unemployment, and the worst [[financial crisis]] since the [[Great Depression]]. The financial crisis threatened the stability of the entire economy in September 2008 when [[Lehman Brothers]] failed and other giant banks were in grave danger.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Kolb |first=Robert W. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=k15gTwOtMcwC&pg=PA96 |title=The Financial Crisis of Our Time |date=2011 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=9780199792788 |page=96ff |access-date=June 27, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016105918/https://books.google.com/books?id=k15gTwOtMcwC&pg=PA96 |archive-date=October 16, 2015 |url-status=live}}</ref> Starting in October the federal government lent $245&nbsp;billion to financial institutions through the [[Troubled Asset Relief Program]]<ref>{{Cite news |last=Riley |first=Charles |date=February 3, 2011 |title=Treasury close to profit on TARP bank loans |work=CNN Money |url=https://money.cnn.com/2011/02/02/news/economy/tarp/index.htm |url-status=live |access-date=March 1, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110309105159/http://money.cnn.com/2011/02/02/news/economy/tarp/index.htm |archive-date=March 9, 2011}}</ref> which was passed by bipartisan majorities and signed by Bush.<ref>{{Cite news |date=November 5, 2010 |title='I'd Approve TARP Again': George W. Bush |url=https://www.cnbc.com/id/40028600/I_d_Approve_TARP_Again_George_W_Bush |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016105918/https://www.cnbc.com/id/40028600/I_d_Approve_TARP_Again_George_W_Bush |archive-date=October 16, 2015}}</ref>
[[File:Barack Obama addresses joint session of Congress 2009-02-24.jpg|thumb|[[Barack Obama]] was the first African-American president of the United States.]]
Following his election victory by a wide electoral margin in [[2008 United States presidential election|November 2008]], Bush's successor – [[Barack Obama]] – signed into law the [[American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009]], which was a $787&nbsp;billion economic stimulus aimed at helping the economy recover from the deepening recession. Obama, like Bush, took steps to rescue the auto industry and prevent future economic meltdowns. These included a bailout of [[General Motors]] and [[Chrysler]], putting ownership temporarily in the hands of the government, and the "[[Car Allowance Rebate System|cash for clunkers]]" program which temporarily boosted new car sales.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Rattner |first=Steven |title=Overhaul: An Insider's Account of the Obama Administration's Emergency Rescue of the Auto Industry |url=https://archive.org/details/overhaulinsiders0000ratt |date=2010|isbn=9780547443218 }}</ref>

The recession officially ended in June 2009, and the economy slowly began to expand once again.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Kaiser |first=Emily |date=September 20, 2010 |title=Recession ended in June 2009: NBER |work=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68J2JJ20100920 |url-status=live |access-date=July 1, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101219121957/http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE68J2JJ20100920 |archive-date=December 19, 2010}}</ref> Beginning in December 2007, the unemployment rate steeply rose from around 5% to a peak of 10% before falling as the economy and labor markets experienced a recovery.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=April 2018 |title=Great Recession, great recovery? Trends from the Current Population Survey |url=https://www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2018/article/great-recession-great-recovery.htm |journal=Monthly Labor Review |publisher=Bureau of Labor Statistics}}</ref> The economic expansion that followed the Great Recession was the longest in U.S. history;<ref name="Rushe">{{Cite news |last=Rushe |first=Dominic |date=April 29, 2020 |title=US economy shrinks 4.8% as coronavirus ends longest expansion in history |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/apr/29/us-economy-shrinks-coronavirus-ends-longest-expansion}}</ref><ref name="Bayly">{{Cite news |last=Bayly |first=Lucy |date=April 29, 2020 |title=GDP falls by 4.8 percent, bringing longest economic expansion on record to abrupt halt |publisher=NBC News |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/gdp-falls-4-8-percent-bringing-longest-economic-expansion-record-n1195106}}</ref> strong growth led to the unemployment rate reaching a 50-year low in 2019.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Long |first=Heather |date=May 3, 2019 |title=U.S. unemployment fell to 3.6 percent, lowest since 1969 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/05/03/us-economy-added-jobs-april-unemployment-fell-percent-lowest-since}}</ref> Despite the strong economy, increases in the costs of housing, child care, higher education, and out-of-pocket healthcare expenses surpassed increases in wages, a phenomenon some referred to as an ''affordability crisis''.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Lowrey |first=Annie |date=February 7, 2020 |title=The Great Affordability Crisis Breaking America |publisher=The Atlantic |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/02/great-affordability-crisis-breaking-america/606046}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Simon |first=Scott |date=February 15, 2020 |title=The U.S. Is In The Midst Of An Affordability Crisis, 'Atlantic' Writer Argues |publisher=Weekend Edition Saturday NPR |url=https://www.npr.org/2020/02/15/806282714/the-u-s-is-in-the-midst-of-an-affordability-crisis-atlantic-writer-argues}}</ref> The economic expansion came to an end in early 2020 with a sharp economic contraction largely caused by the [[COVID-19 pandemic in the United States|COVID-19 pandemic]], which seriously affected the United States.<ref name=Rushe/><ref name=Bayly/>[[File:White house Rainbow 20150626.png|thumb|The [[White House]] lit with rainbow colors in celebration of the legalization of gay marriage in 2015]]
From 2009 to 2010, the [[111th United States Congress|111th Congress]] passed major legislation such as the [[Affordable Care Act|Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act]], informally known as Obamacare, the [[Dodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act]]<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jansson |first=Bruce S. |title=The Reluctant Welfare State: Engaging History to Advance Social Work Practice in Contemporary Society |date=2011 |publisher=Cengage Learning |isbn=9780840034403 |page=466}}</ref> and the [[Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010|Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act]], which were signed into law by President Obama.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Watson |first=Robert P. |title=The Obama Presidency: A Preliminary Assessment |date=2012 |publisher=SUNY Press |isbn=9781438443287 |display-authors=etal}}</ref> Following the [[2010 United States elections|2010 midterm elections]], which resulted in a Republican-controlled House of Representatives and a Democratic-controlled Senate,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Abramson |first=Paul R. |title=Change and Continuity in the 2008 and 2010 Elections |date=2011 |display-authors=etal}}</ref> Congress presided over a period of elevated gridlock and heated debates over whether or not to raise the [[Debt limit|debt ceiling]], extend tax cuts for citizens making over $250,000 annually, and many other key issues.<ref>{{Cite web |date=December 22, 2011 |title=Congress Ends 2011 Mired in Gridlock |url=http://www.investorplace.com/2011/12/congress-ends-2011-mired-in-gridlock |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120104040658/http://www.investorplace.com/2011/12/congress-ends-2011-mired-in-gridlock |archive-date=January 4, 2012 |access-date=February 24, 2012 |publisher=InvestorPlace}}</ref> These ongoing debates led to President Obama signing the [[Budget Control Act of 2011]]. Following Obama's 2012 re-election, Congressional gridlock continued as Congressional Republicans' call for the repeal of the [[Affordable Care Act|Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act]] along with other various demands, resulted in the [[2013 United States federal government shutdown|first government shutdown since the Clinton administration]] and almost led to the first default on [[National debt of the United States|U.S. debt]] since the 19th century. As a result of growing public frustration with both parties in Congress since the beginning of the decade, Congressional approval ratings fell to record lows.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gallup, Inc. |title=Congress' Job Approval Falls to 11% Amid Gov't Shutdown |date=October 7, 2013 |url=http://www.gallup.com/poll/165281/congress-job-approval-falls-amid-gov-shutdown.aspx |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006075722/http://www.gallup.com/poll/165281/congress-job-approval-falls-amid-gov-shutdown.aspx |archive-date=October 6, 2014 |access-date=October 1, 2014}}</ref>

Recent events also include the rise of new political movements, such as the [[Conservatism in the United States|conservative]] [[Tea Party movement]] and the [[Modern liberalism in the United States|liberal]] [[Occupy movement]]. The debate over the issue of rights for [[LGBT in the United States|the LGBT community]], including [[same-sex marriage]], began to shift in favor of same-sex couples.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Civil Rights |url=http://www.pollingreport.com/civil.htm |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130428225441/http://www.pollingreport.com/civil.htm |archive-date=April 28, 2013 |access-date=October 1, 2014}}</ref> In 2012, President Obama became the first president to openly support same-sex marriage, and the [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] provided for federal recognition of same-sex unions and then nationwide legalized gay marriage in 2015.

Political debate has continued over [[tax reform]], [[immigration reform]], [[Income inequality in the United States|income inequality]], and [[Foreign policy of the United States|U.S. foreign policy]] in the Middle East, particularly with regards to [[terrorism|global terrorism]], the rise of the [[Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant]] and an accompanying climate of [[Islamophobia]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tottoli |first=Roberto |title=Routledge Handbook of Islam in the West |date=2014 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=9781317744023 |page=230}}</ref>

The late 2010s were marked by widespread social upheaval and change in the United States. The [[Me Too movement|#MeToo]] movement gained popularity, exposing alleged sexual harassment and abuse in the workplace.<ref>{{Cite web |date=February 21, 2020 |title=Me Too founder Tarana Burke discusses where we go from here |url=https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2020/02/me-too-founder-tarana-burke-discusses-where-we-go-from-here |access-date=March 8, 2021 |website=Harvard Gazette |language=en-US}}</ref> Multiple prominent celebrities were accused of misconduct or rape.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Stars accused of sexual harassment and assault |url=https://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/hollywood-stars-accused-sexual-harassment-assault-gallery-1.3547625 |access-date=March 8, 2021 |website=nydailynews.com|date=August 6, 2020 }}</ref> During this period, the [[Black Lives Matter]] movement also gained support online, exacerbated by the police killings of multiple black Americans.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Capatosto |first=Victoria |title=A Brief History of Civil Rights in the United States |url=https://library.law.howard.edu/civilrightshistory/BLM |access-date=March 8, 2021 |website=library.law.howard.edu |language=en}}</ref> Multiple mass shootings, including the [[Orlando nightclub shooting|Pulse Nightclub shooting]] (2016) and the [[2017 Las Vegas shooting|Las Vegas shooting]], which claimed the lives of 61 people, led to increased calls for gun control and reform. Following the [[Stoneman Douglas High School shooting]] in 2018, gun control advocates organized the [[March for Our Lives]], where millions of students across the country walked out of school to protest gun violence.<ref>{{Cite web |author=Dakin Andone |date=March 21, 2018 |title=What you should know about the March for Our Lives |url=https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/21/us/march-for-our-lives-explainer/index.html |access-date=March 8, 2021 |website=CNN |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Times |first=The New York |date=March 24, 2018 |title=March for Our Lives Highlights: Students Protesting Guns Say 'Enough Is Enough' (Published 2018) |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/24/us/march-for-our-lives.html |access-date=March 8, 2021 |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> The [[Women's March]] protest against Trump's presidency in 2017 was one of the largest protests in American history.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2018 |title=Largest Protests in American History |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/largest-marches-us-history-2017-2#the-womens-march-on-washington-january-21-2017-11 |website=Business Insider}}</ref>

=== Pandemic and cultural change (2016–present) ===
{{see also|Presidency of Donald Trump|China–United States trade war|COVID-19 pandemic in the United States|Presidency of Joe Biden}}
[[File:A man stands on a burned out car on Thursday morning as fires burn behind him in the Lake St area of Minneapolis, Minnesota (49945886467).jpg|thumb|left|A man stands on a burned out car following protests over the [[murder of George Floyd]] on May 28, 2020.]]
In 2016, following a contentious election, Republican [[Donald Trump]] was [[2016 United States presidential election|elected president]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=November 9, 2016 |title=The Latest: Trump promises 'I will not let you down |url=http://elections.ap.org/content/latest-donald-trump-elected-president |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161116163438/http://elections.ap.org/content/latest-donald-trump-elected-president |archive-date=November 16, 2016 |access-date=November 15, 2016 |publisher=Associated Press}}</ref> The results of the election were called into question, and U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that associates of the Russian government [[Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections|interfered in the election]] "to undermine public faith in the U.S. democratic process". This, along with questions about potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian officials, led to investigations by the FBI and Congress.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Miller |first1=Greg |last2=Entous |first2=Adam |title=Declassified report says Putin 'ordered' effort to undermine faith in U.S. election and help Trump |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/intelligence-chiefs-expected-in-new-york-to-brief-trump-on-russian-hacking/2017/01/06/5f591416-d41a-11e6-9cb0-54ab630851e8_story.html |url-status=live |access-date=May 26, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170107010016/https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/intelligence-chiefs-expected-in-new-york-to-brief-trump-on-russian-hacking/2017/01/06/5f591416-d41a-11e6-9cb0-54ab630851e8_story.html |archive-date=January 7, 2017}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Fleitz |first=Fred |date=January 7, 2017 |title=Was Friday's declassified report claiming Russian hacking of the 2016 election rigged? |url=http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017/01/07/was-fridays-declassified-report-claiming-russian-hacking-2016-election-rigged.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170525034733/http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017/01/07/was-fridays-declassified-report-claiming-russian-hacking-2016-election-rigged.html |archive-date=May 25, 2017 |access-date=May 26, 2017 |website=Fox News}}</ref>

During Trump's presidency, he espoused an "[[America First (policy)|America First]]" ideology, placing restrictions on asylum seekers and imposing a widely controversial [[Trump travel ban|ban on immigration from seven Muslim-majority countries]]. Many of his executive orders and other actions were challenged in court.<ref>{{Cite web |author=Jeremy Diamond |date=January 28, 2017 |title=Trump's latest executive order: Banning people from 7 countries and more – CNN Politics |url=https://www.cnn.com/2017/01/27/politics/donald-trump-refugees-executive-order/index.html |access-date=March 8, 2021 |website=CNN |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=These are the Trump administration policies courts have ruled against |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/politics/trump-overruled |access-date=March 8, 2021 |newspaper=Washington Post |language=en |archive-date=February 26, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210226022838/https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/politics/trump-overruled/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> During his presidency he also engaged the United States in a [[trade war]] with China, imposing a wide range of [[tariff]]s on Chinese products.<ref>{{Cite news |date=January 16, 2020 |title=A quick guide to the US-China trade war |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/business-45899310 |access-date=March 8, 2021}}</ref> In 2018, controversy erupted over the Trump administration's "[[Trump administration family separation policy|zero tolerance]]" policy towards illegal immigrants, which involved the separation of thousands of undocumented children from their parents. After public outcry, Trump rescinded this policy.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Trump's Executive Order On Family Separation: What It Does And Doesn't Do |url=https://www.npr.org/2018/06/20/622095441/trump-executive-order-on-family-separation-what-it-does-and-doesnt-do |access-date=March 8, 2021 |newspaper=NPR |date=June 20, 2018 |language=en|last1=Gonzales |first1=Richard }}</ref> Trump's term also saw the confirmation of three new justices to the Supreme Court, cementing a conservative majority.

In 2019, a whistleblower complaint alleged that Trump had withheld foreign aid from Ukraine under the demand that they investigate the business dealings of the son of Trump's political opponent.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Breuninger |first=Kevin |date=September 25, 2019 |title=Trump asked Ukraine president in phone call 'if you can look into' Biden and his son |url=https://www.cnbc.com/2019/09/25/trump-asked-ukraine-president-if-you-can-look-into-biden-and-his-son-in-phone-call.html |access-date=March 8, 2021 |website=CNBC |language=en}}</ref> As a result, Trump was impeached for abuse of power and obstruction of congress, becoming the third president to have been impeached, but [[First impeachment of Donald Trump|he was acquitted]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=February 5, 2020 |title=Trump impeachment: The short, medium and long story |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-49800181 |access-date=March 8, 2021}}</ref>

[[File:Lt. Cmdr. Michael Heimes checks on a patient connected to a ventilator at Baton Rouge General Mid City campus.jpg|thumb|A naval officer checks on a patient connected to a ventilator in [[Baton Rouge, Louisiana|Baton Rouge]] during the [[COVID-19 pandemic in the United States|COVID-19 pandemic]].]]
The worldwide [[COVID-19 pandemic]] having arrived in the United States was first confirmed in January 2020. By February 2, the Trump administration restricted travel to and from China.<ref name="RobertsonApril15">{{cite web |last=Robertson |first=Lori |name-list-style=vanc |date=April 15, 2020 |title=Trump's Snowballing China Travel Claim |url=https://www.factcheck.org/2020/04/trumps-snowballing-china-travel-claim |access-date=April 29, 2020 |website=[[FactCheck.org]] |quote=... effective February 2.}}</ref> On March 11, the [[World Health Organization|WHO]] declared the virus to be a pandemic.<ref>{{Cite magazine |title=The WHO Just Declared Coronavirus COVID-19 a Pandemic |url=https://time.com/5791661/who-coronavirus-pandemic-declaration/ |access-date=2022-03-04 |magazine=Time |language=en}}</ref> In March, many [[U.S. state and local government responses to the COVID-19 pandemic|state and local governments]] imposed [[Stay-at-home order|"stay at home" orders]] to slow the spread of the virus, with the goal of reducing patient overload in hospitals. By March 26, ''[[New York Times]]'' data showed the United States to have the highest number of known cases of any country.<ref>{{cite news |last=McNeil|first=Donald G. Jr. |title=The U.S. Now Leads the World in Confirmed Coronavirus Cases|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/26/health/usa-coronavirus-cases.html |date=March 26, 2020 |work=The New York Times |access-date=March 26, 2022}}</ref> By March 27, the country had reported over 100,000 cases.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Chan |first1=Christine |last2=Shumaker |first2=Lisa |last3=Maler |first3=Sandra |title=Confirmed coronavirus cases in U.S. reach 100,000: Reuters tally |url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-cases/confirmed-coronavirus-cases-in-u-s-reach-100000-reuters-tally-idUSKBN21E3DA |date=March 28, 2020 |work=[[Reuters]] |access-date=March 28, 2020 |name-list-style=vanc}}</ref> On April 2, at President Trump's direction, the [[Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services]] (CMS) and CDC ordered additional preventive guidelines to the long-term care facility industry.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.mcknights.com/news/trump-wants-masks-on-all-nursing-home-workers-temperature-checks-for-all-and-separate-covid-units/ |title=Trump wants masks on all nursing home workers, temperature checks for all, and separate COVID-19 units |work=McKnight's Long-term Care News |date=April 3, 2020 }}</ref> On April 11, the U.S. death toll became the highest in the world when the number of deaths reached 20,000, surpassing that of [[COVID-19 pandemic in Italy|Italy]].<ref>{{Cite news|date=April 11, 2020|title=U.S. coronavirus deaths top 20,000, highest in world exceeding Italy: Reuters tally|work=[[Reuters]]|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-casualties-idUSKCN21T0NA|access-date=May 1, 2020}}</ref> On April 19, the CMS added new regulations requiring nursing homes to inform residents, their families and representatives, of COVID-19 cases in their facilities.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.cms.gov/newsroom/press-releases/trump-administration-announces-new-nursing-homes-covid-19-transparency-effort |title=Trump Administration Announces New Nursing Homes COVID-19 Transparency Effort |publisher=Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services |date=April 19, 2020 }}</ref> On April 28, the total number of confirmed cases across the country surpassed 1{{nbsp}}million.<ref name="million 1">{{cite news|url=https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/28/health/us-coronavirus-tuesday/index.html|title=US coronavirus cases surpass 1 million and the death toll is greater than US losses in Vietnam War|author1=Steve Almasy |author2=Christina Maxouris |author3=Nicole Chavez|work=CNN|access-date=April 29, 2020}}</ref> {{As of|May 2022}}, the U.S. has suffered more official COVID-19 deaths than any other country with the death toll standing at 1 million,<ref>{{Cite news |last=Iorfida |first=Chris |date=May 12, 2022 |title=U.S. surpasses 1 million COVID-19 deaths: A look at the numbers |work=CBC News |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/us-million-covid-deaths-1.6150574 |access-date=2022-06-03}}</ref> with the U.S. death toll surpassing the number of U.S. deaths during the Spanish flu pandemic, although the Spanish flu killed 1 in 150 Americans compared to COVID-19 killing 1 in 500 Americans.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gamillo |first=Elizabeth |date=September 24, 2021 |title=Covid-19 Surpasses 1918 Flu to Become Deadliest Pandemic in American History |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/the-covid-19-pandemic-is-considered-the-deadliest-in-american-history-as-death-toll-surpasses-1918-estimates-180978748/ |access-date=2022-06-03 |website=Smithsonian Magazine |language=en}}</ref> As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. life expectancy fell by over a year in 2020 and unemployment rates rose to the worst rates since the Great Depression.<ref>{{Cite web |date=February 18, 2021 |first=Stephanie |last=Soucheray |title=Amid COVID-19, US life expectancy sees biggest drop since WWII |url=https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2021/02/amid-covid-19-us-life-expectancy-sees-biggest-drop-wwii |access-date=March 8, 2021 |website=CIDRAP |language=en}}</ref> In 2021, U.S. life expectancy decreased by around half a year.<ref>{{Cite web |last=McPhillips |first=Deidre |date=April 7, 2022 |title=US life expectancy continues historic decline with another drop in 2021, study finds |url=https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/07/health/us-life-expectancy-drops-again-2021/index.html |access-date=2022-06-03 |website=CNN}}</ref> The May 2020 [[murder of George Floyd]] caused mass [[George Floyd protests|protests and riots]] in many major cities over [[Police brutality in the United States|police brutality]], with many states calling in the [[United States National Guard|National Guard]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Mapping US cities where George Floyd protests have erupted |url=https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/interactive/2020/06/mapping-cities-george-floyd-protests-erupted-200601081654119.html |access-date=June 26, 2020 |website=www.aljazeera.com}}</ref>

2020 was marked by a rise in domestic terrorist threats and widespread [[conspiracy theories]] around [[mail-in voting]] and COVID-19.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Brewster |first=Jack |title=Trump Renews Ballot 'Dump' Conspiracy Theory Claim—Here's Why Its Bogus |url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackbrewster/2020/11/30/trump-renews-ballot-dump-conspiracy-theory-claim-heres-why-its-bogus |access-date=March 8, 2021 |website=Forbes |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=May 8, 2020 |title=Coronavirus: 'Plandemic' virus conspiracy video spreads across social media |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-52588682 |access-date=March 8, 2021}}</ref> The [[QAnon]] conspiracy theory, a fringe far-right political movement among some ardent conservatives, gained publicity and multiple major cities were hit by rioting and brawls between far-left [[Antifa (United States)|antifascist affiliated groups]] and far right groups such as the [[Proud Boys]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=August 25, 2020 |title=QAnon explained: the antisemitic conspiracy theory gaining traction around the world |url=http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/25/qanon-conspiracy-theory-explained-trump-what-is |access-date=March 8, 2021 |website=The Guardian |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Shepherd |first=Katie |title=Portland police stand by as Proud Boys and far-right militias flash guns and brawl with antifa counterprotesters |language=en-US |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/08/22/portland-police-far-right-protest |access-date=March 8, 2021 |issn=0190-8286}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Minneapolis mayor calls in National Guard after unrest downtown |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/minneapolis-mayor-calls-national-guard-after-unrest-downtown-n1238366 |access-date=March 8, 2021 |website=NBC News |date=August 27, 2020 |language=en}}</ref>

[[File:2021 storming of the United States Capitol DSC09254-2 (50820534063) (retouched).jpg|thumb|Supporters of then-President [[Donald Trump]] attempted to stop the counting of [[electoral votes]] on [[January 6 United States Capitol attack|January 6, 2021]].|left]]

Democrat [[Joe Biden]] defeated Trump in the [[2020 United States presidential election|2020 presidential election]], the first defeat of an incumbent president [[1992 United States presidential election|since 1992]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Gilliland |first=Donald |date=November 7, 2020 |title=Biden's defeat of Trump is the most important win since FDR |url=https://thehill.com/opinion/campaign/524942-bidens-defeat-of-trump-is-the-most-important-win-since-fdr |access-date=December 16, 2020 |website=[[The Hill (newspaper)|The Hill]] |language=en}}</ref> The election, with an exceptional amount of [[Postal voting in the 2020 United States elections|voting by mail]] and [[early voting]] due to the danger of contracting COVID-19 at traditional voting booths, had historically high voter turnout.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Miao |first=Hannah |date=November 4, 2020 |title=2020 election sees record high turnout with at least 159.8 million votes projected |url=https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/04/2020-election-sees-record-high-turnout-with-at-least-159point8-million-votes-projected.html |access-date=December 16, 2020 |website=CNBC |language=en}}</ref> Trump then repeatedly made false claims of massive voter fraud and election rigging, leading to the [[January 6 United States Capitol attack]] by supporters of Trump and right-wing militias.<ref>{{Cite web |date=December 3, 2020 |title=AP Fact Check: Trump's claims of vote rigging are all wrong |url=https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-ap-fact-check-joe-biden-donald-trump-technology-49a24edd6d10888dbad61689c24b05a5 |access-date=December 16, 2020 |website=The Associated Press}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |title=Trump Fundraising Surges After Election As He Makes False Claims It Was Rigged |url=https://www.npr.org/sections/biden-transition-updates/2020/12/04/942930782/trump-fundraising-surges-after-election-as-he-makes-false-claims-it-was-rigged |access-date=December 16, 2020 |newspaper=NPR |date=December 4, 2020 |language=en|last1=Keith |first1=Tamara }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Trump's false fraud claims are laying groundwork for new voting restrictions, experts warn |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/elections/trump-s-false-fraud-claims-are-laying-groundwork-new-voting-n1250059 |access-date=December 16, 2020 |website=NBC News |date=December 6, 2020 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last1=Walters |first1=Joanna |last2=Bekiempis |first2=Victoria |date=December 12, 2020 |title=Trump loses another case challenging election results in latest legal rebuke |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/dec/12/donald-trump-wisconsin-court-case-2020-election |access-date=December 16, 2020 |issn=0261-3077}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=January 6, 2021 |title=Pro-Trump mob storm Capitol as lawmakers meet to certify Biden's win – video |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2021/jan/06/trump-supporters-storm-capitol-protest-senate-video |access-date=January 8, 2021 |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> That storming led to Trump's impeachment, as the only U.S. president to be impeached twice.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=DeBonis |first1=Mike |last2=Kim |first2=Seung Min |title=House impeaches Trump with 10 Republicans joining, but Senate plans unclear |language=en-US |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/house-impeachment-trump/2021/01/13/05fe731c-55c5-11eb-a931-5b162d0d033d_story.html |access-date=January 14, 2021 |issn=0190-8286}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Fink |first=Jenni |date=January 13, 2021 |title=Donald Trump becomes first president to get impeached twice, losing stranglehold on GOP |url=https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-becomes-first-president-get-impeached-twice-losing-stranglehold-gop-1561211 |access-date=January 14, 2021 |website=Newsweek |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Gambino |first=Lauren |date=January 13, 2021 |title=Donald Trump impeached a second time over mob attack on US Capitol |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/13/trump-impeached-again-president-history-capitol-attack |access-date=January 14, 2021 |issn=0261-3077}}</ref> The Senate [[Second impeachment trial of Donald Trump|later acquitted]] Trump despite some members of his own Republican party voting against him.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Herb |first1=Jeremy |last2=Raju |first2=Manu |last3=Barrett |first3=Ted |last4=Fox |first4=Lauren |title=Trump acquitted for second time following historic Senate impeachment trial |url=https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/13/politics/senate-impeachment-trial-day-5-vote/index.html |access-date=February 17, 2021 |website=CNN|date=February 13, 2021 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=U.S. Senate: U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 117th Congress – 1st Session |url=https://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=117&session=1&vote=00059 |access-date=February 17, 2021 |website=www.senate.gov}}</ref> After the [[Inauguration of Joe Biden|2021 inauguration]], Biden's running-mate, then-Senator [[Kamala Harris]], became both the first [[African Americans|African-American]] and first woman vice president of the United States.<ref>{{cite news |title=Kamala Harris Makes History as First Woman and Woman of Color as Vice President |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/07/us/politics/kamala-harris.html |website=The New York Times |date=November 7, 2020 |access-date=July 15, 2022|last1=Lerer |first1=Lisa |last2=Ember |first2=Sydney }}</ref>

The [[COVID-19 vaccination in the United States|biggest mass vaccination campaign in U.S. history]] kicked off on December 14, 2020, when ICU nurse Sandra Lindsay became the first person in the U.S. to receive the [[Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine|Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine]]. As of August 2021, 60% of the U.S. population has received a dose of the [[Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine|Pfizer BioNTech]], [[Moderna COVID-19 vaccine|Moderna]], or [[Janssen COVID-19 vaccine|Johnson & Johnson]] COVID-19 vaccine.

Following Biden's election, the date for [[withdrawal of United States troops from Afghanistan (2020–2021)|US troops to withdraw from Afghanistan]] was moved back from April to August 31, 2021.<ref>{{Cite news |last1=Miller |first1=Zeke |last2=Madhani |first2=Aamer |date=July 8, 2021 |title='Overdue': Biden sets Aug. 31 for US exit from Afghanistan |work=[[Associated Press]] |url=https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-afghanistan-government-and-politics-86f939c746c7bc56bb9f11f095a95366 |access-date=May 2, 2022}}</ref> In Afghanistan, the withdrawal coincided with the [[2021 Taliban offensive]], culminating in the [[Fall of Kabul (2021)|fall of Kabul]]. Following a massive airlift of over 120,000 people, the US military mission formally ended on August 30, 2021.

Biden signed into law the [[American Rescue Plan Act of 2021]]; a $1.9 trillion [[Stimulus (economics)|stimulus bill]] that temporarily established expanded unemployment insurance and sent $1,400 stimulus checks to most Americans in response to continued economic pressure from COVID-19.<ref>{{cite news |last=Segers |first=Grace |date=March 12, 2021 |title=Biden signs $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan into law |agency=CBS News |url=https://www.cbsnews.com/news/biden-signs-covid-relief-bill-american-rescue-plan-into-law/ |access-date=July 5, 2021}}</ref> He signed the bipartisan [[Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act]]; a ten-year plan brokered by Biden alongside Democrats and Republicans in Congress, to invest in American roads, bridges, public transit, ports and broadband access.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Shalal |first1=Andrea |last2=Holland |first2=Steve |date=November 16, 2021 |title=Biden signs $1 trillion infrastructure bill into law |work=Reuters |url=https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-needing-boost-sign-1-trillion-infrastructure-bill-2021-11-15/ |access-date=November 16, 2021}}</ref> He appointed [[Ketanji Brown Jackson]] to the [[Supreme Court of the United States|U.S. Supreme Court]]—the first [[Black women|Black woman]] to serve the court. Biden proposed a significant expansion of the U.S. social safety net through the [[Build Back Better Act]], but those efforts, along with [[Freedom to Vote Act|voting rights legislation]], failed in Congress. However, in August 2022, Biden signed the [[Inflation Reduction Act of 2022]], a domestic appropriations bill that included some of the provisions of the Build Back Better Act after the entire bill failed to pass. It included significant federal investment in climate and domestic clean energy production, tax credits for solar panels, electric cars and other home energy programs as well as a three-year extension of [[Affordable Care Act]] subsidies. From June 2022 Biden went on a string of legislative achievements; with the signing of The [[Bipartisan Safer Communities Act]], the [[CHIPS and Science Act]], a massive investment in the [[Semiconductor]] industry and manufacturing, [[Honoring our PACT Act of 2022]], expansion of veterans healthcare and the [[Respect for Marriage Act]], repealing the [[Defense of Marriage Act]] and codifying [[Same-sex marriage|Same-sex]] and [[Interracial marriage|Interracial]] marriage.

[[File:Protests in front of SCOTUS after Dobbs - 2022-06-24.jpg|thumb|250px|Protestors outside of the Supreme Court shortly after the announcement of the ''[[Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization]]'' decision in 2022]]
On June 24, 2022, the [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]], in a landmark ruling, determined that abortion is not a protected right under the Constitution.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Liptak |first=Adam |author-link=Adam Liptak |date=June 24, 2022 |title=In 6-to-3 Ruling, Supreme Court Ends Nearly 50 Years of Abortion Rights |work=[[The New York Times]] |publication-place=Washington, D.C. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/24/us/roe-wade-overturned-supreme-court.html |url-status=live |url-access=limited |access-date=June 25, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220625032744/https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/24/us/roe-wade-overturned-supreme-court.html |archive-date=June 25, 2022 |issn=1553-8095 |oclc=1645522}}</ref> The ruling, ''[[Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization]]'' overturned ''[[Roe v. Wade]]'' and ''[[Planned Parenthood v. Casey]]'' and sparked [[2022 abortion rights protests in the United States|protests]] outside of the Supreme Court building and across the country.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Almasy |first=Steve |date=June 24, 2022 |title=Protests underway in cities from Washington to Los Angeles in wake of Supreme Court abortion decision |url=https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/24/us/supreme-court-roe-v-wade-protests/index.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220625065025/https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/24/us/supreme-court-roe-v-wade-protests/index.html |archive-date=June 25, 2022 |access-date=2022-06-25 |website=[[CNN]]}}</ref>

[[Ketanji Brown Jackson]] succeeded Justice Breyer upon his retirement from the court on June 30, 2022.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Dwyer |first1=Devin |last2=Cathey |first2=Libby |date=June 29, 2022 |title=Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer to officially retire Thursday at noon |url=https://abcnews.go.com/US/supreme-court-justice-stephen-breyer-officially-retire-thursday/story?id=85935832 |website=ABC News |language=en |access-date=June 29, 2022}}</ref> She became the first [[Black women|black woman]] and the first former [[federal public defender]] to serve on the Supreme Court upon her [[Oath|swearing in]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Tapper |first1=Jake |last2=de Vogue |first2=Ariane |last3=Zeleny |first3=Jeff |last4=Klein |first4=Betsy |last5=Vazquez |first5=Maegan |date=February 25, 2022|title=Biden nominates Ketanji Brown Jackson to be first Black woman to sit on Supreme Court |url=https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/25/politics/supreme-court-ketanji-brown-jackson/index.html |archive-date=February 28, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220228012241/https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/25/politics/supreme-court-ketanji-brown-jackson/index.html |url-status=live |website=CNN |access-date=February 28, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Booker |first=Brakkton |date=April 7, 2022 |title=What Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson means for the country |url=https://www.politico.com/news/2022/04/07/ketanji-brown-jackson-supreme-court-impact-00023961 |website=Politico |access-date=June 30, 2022}}</ref>

In the early-2020s, [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]]-led states across the United States began [[2020s anti-LGBT movement in the United States|sweeping rollbacks of LGBT rights]]. These included [[Transgender rights in the United States#Healthcare|bans on gender transitions]], bans on [[Drag panic|public performances of drag shows]], and other restrictions on [[LGBT rights in the United States|LGBT rights]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Over 120 Bills Restricting LGBTQ Rights Introduced Nationwide in 2023 So Far |url=https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/over-120-bills-restricting-lgbtq-rights-introduced-nationwide-2023-so-far |website=ACLU |access-date=7 March 2023}}</ref>

== See also ==
{{Portal|United States}}
{{Columns-list|colwidth=30em|
* [[American urban history]]
* [[Bibliography of American history]]
* [[Colonial history of the United States]]
* [[Economic history of the United States]]
* [[History of agriculture in the United States]]
* [[History of education in the United States]]
* [[History of United States foreign policy]]
* [[History of immigration to the United States]]
* [[History of North America]]
* [[History of religion in the United States]]
* [[History of the Southern United States]]
* [[History of the United States government]]
* [[History of women in the United States]]
* [[List of historians by area of study#History of the United States|List of historians by area of study]]
* [[List of history journals#United States and Canada|List of history journals]]
* [[List of presidents of the United States]]
* [[Military history of the United States]]
* [[Outline of United States history]]
* [[Politics of the United States]]
* [[Racism in the United States]]
* [[Territorial evolution of the United States]]
* [[Territories of the United States]]
* [[United States factor]]
}}

== Notes ==
{{Notelist}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

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* {{Cite book |last=Wilentz |first=Sean |url=https://archive.org/details/ageofreaganhisto00wile |title=The Age of Reagan: A History, 1974–2008 |date=2008 |publisher=Harper |isbn=9780060744809 |ref={{SfnRef|Wilentz}} |author-link=Sean Wilentz |url-access=registration}}
* {{Cite book |last=Wood |first=Gordon S. |title=Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789–1815 |date=2009 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=9780195039146 |series=Oxford History of the United States |ref={{SfnRef|Wood, Empire of Liberty}} |author-link=Gordon S. Wood}}
* {{Cite book |last=Zinn |first=Howard |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9-FtlblxbLgC |title=A People's History of the United States |date=2003 |publisher=HarperPerennial Modern Classics |isbn=9780060528423 |ref={{SfnRef|Zinn}} |author-link=Howard Zinn}}
* {{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/handbookofameric00zoph |title=Handbook of American Women's History |date=2000 |isbn=9780824087449 |editor-last=Zophy |editor-first=Angela Howard |edition=2nd |ref={{SfnRef|Zophy}}}}

==External links==
{{Sister project links}}
* {{Cite web |title=Encyclopedia of American Studies |url=http://eas-ref.press.jhu.edu}}
* {{Cite web |title=US History map animation |url=http://www.houstonculture.org/kids/usmap.html |publisher=Houston Institute for Culture |access-date=July 24, 2011 |archive-date=January 17, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130117042507/http://www.houstonculture.org/kids/usmap.html |url-status=dead }}
* {{Cite web |title=Edsitement, History & Social Studies |url=http://edsitement.neh.gov/subject/history-social-studies |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130826003047/http://edsitement.neh.gov/subject/history-social-studies |archive-date=August 26, 2013 |publisher=[[National Endowment for the Humanities]]}}
* {{Cite web |title=The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History |url=http://www.gilderlehrman.org}}
* {{Cite web |title=BackStory |url=http://backstoryradio.org}}, American history public radio show hosted by [[Edward L. Ayers|Ed Ayers]], Brian Balogh, and Peter Onuf

{{U.S. political divisions histories}}
{{US history}}
{{United States topics}}
{{History of North America by country}}
{{World topic|History of}}
{{authority control}}

[[Category:History of the United States| ]]